The National Hurricane Center in the United States has issued its first-ever tropical storm watch for the southern tip of California as Hurricane Hilary approaches.
The watch, issued on Friday, indicates that tropical storm conditions — including rough seas, heavy rains and winds up to 117 kilometres per hour (73 miles per hour) — are possible within the next two days.
But the designation also makes history in California, a state which, despite its long coastline, has not seen a tropical storm strike in nearly 84 years.
“It is rare — indeed nearly unprecedented in the modern record — to have a tropical system like this move through Southern California,” Weather Channel specialist Greg Postel told CBS News.
Currently a powerful Category 4 storm, Hilary has also prompted a hurricane warning along the Baja California peninsula in Mexico, where it is expected to make landfall on Saturday night into Sunday morning.
The cyclone strengthened rapidly on Thursday, reaching the second-highest category on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson scale by Friday. Meteorologists recorded sustained winds of 230km/h (145mph), some gusts going even higher.
Article from www.aljazeera.com