Western states sweating under an intense heat wave could soon see heavy rain and flooding after Hurricane Kay made landfall on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula on Thursday as a tropical storm, forecasters said.
Kay made landfall near the middle of the roughly 760-mile peninsula off Mexico’s Pacific coast with 70 mph maximum sustained winds, heavy rain and a powerful storm track, the National Hurricane Center said.
On Thursday night, the storm was 370 south-southeast of San Diego and tropical storm warnings were in effect across much of the peninsula’s east and west coasts, the center said.
Kay is not expected to hit the mainland US immediately, but it is forecast to bring winds, heavy rain and flash flooding to California and Arizona early Friday.
Tropical cyclones affecting Southern California are very unusual. The most recent was Hurricane Nora in 1997, which moved as a tropical storm over southeastern California and caused power outages in Los Angeles and flooding in San Diego.
Kay is expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of rain in Southern California and 1 to 2 inches in southwestern Arizona — and the deluge could last into Sunday. Southern California could also see “gusty, strong, easterly winds,” the San Diego office of the National Weather Service said.
Kay is also expected to create northward moving swells along the Baja California coast, which could affect the Gulf of California and southern California “in the coming days,” the NHC said.
Parts of California and Arizona reported record temperatures this month, straining infrastructure and prompting officials to ask residents to conserve electricity.
On Thursday, 41 million people remained under heat warnings across the West in the 10th day of dangerous heat in the region.
The rain from the hurricane will likely break another record: average monthly rainfall.
In Los Angeles, the average rainfall for the month of September is 0.13 inches, and in San Diego it is 0.12 inches. Those cities could see 10 to 20 times as much rain in one weekend.
Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, Hurricane Earl is churning near Bermuda, with tropical storm conditions expected to hit the island starting Thursday afternoon, the NHC said. Significant swells and rip currents are forecast to reach the US East Coast later Thursday.
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Kathryn Prociv is a senior meteorologist and producer for NBC News.
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