Hilary is now a post-tropical cyclone, currently centered near the Nevada-California border, less than 400 miles north of San Diego.
While the storm continues to weaken as it heads north, it is still impacting the western U.S. with historic rainfall and life-threatening flooding.
Post-Tropical Cyclone Hilary will continue to drench parts of the Southwest and western U.S. with heavy rainfall and flooding. Ongoing and additional flooding is expected through Monday.
Hilary is forecast to remain a tropical storm as in moves over Southern California today before becoming post-tropical as it tracks over the western U.S. tonight into Monday.
Regardless, it is still bringing catastrophic and life-threatening flooding across the western U.S.
The first ever Tropical Storm Warnings that were issued by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) for Southern California have been discontinued.
Here’s a look at Hilary when it made landfall in Baja California.
While the bulk of the heaviest rain has moved out of Southern California, Hilary could still bring the region another 2 to 4 inches of rain on Monday, with locally higher totals possible in some spots.
This could exacerbate any flooding that is ongoing or could lead to additional flooding. Burn scars will become especially susceptible to problems, too, increasing the potential for mudslides.
We can also expect gusty winds and hazardous marine conditions as the system approaches and moves through. A few tornadoes could even spin up across the most southeastern deserts.
Hilary became a named storm on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023 and then intensified into a hurricane Thursday morning, then a major hurricane Thursday evening. It’s the fourth major hurricane of the 2023 Pacific hurricane season.
Interaction with land and cooler waters caused Hilary to weaken significantly before making landfall over the northern Baja California Peninsula around on Sunday, Aug. 20, but the then tropical storm still brought gusty winds and significant rainfall to the region and the Southwest U.S.
The last tropical system to pass within a couple hundred miles of Los Angeles was Nora in 1997. It went from a tropical storm to a tropical depression as its center straddled the California-Arizona border.
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