Hurricane Hilary on path toward Southern California

Mudslides and collapses are a real threat, but the storm is likely to hit on the other side of the mountains, so probably not going to be an issue in San Diego in any event

My wife is in north San Diego county this week. We talked about it, and I think the biggest dangers will be driving if there is flooding (possible), and having food that doesn’t require cooking if there is a power outage (much more likely). Not much of a mudslide threat where she is. As long as she stays home, hopefully it’s more of an inconvenience than a real danger. We’ll see soon enough. I’ll tell her to top off the gas tank in the car as well.

im told it’s gonna hit the high desert Sunday …of course, we have a long line of boxes out back still from the move We did get two slight downpours Wednesday of about 15 minutes each

Near as I can tell, the current track goes directly over my house. Sunday could be…interesting.

I wonder if the Navy Ships are headed out. It is usually safer at sea than in port for a full Hurricane. Especially the carriers. North island (Coronado) is less protected than 32nd Street.



OK, apparently they are heading out.

So the Navy believes it is going to be pretty bad.



Just thinking, this might be the most powerful fleet to pull out of San Diego ever as the last Hurricane was in 1939 and I’m not sure there was even one carrier there at the time. But I believe one at most. Though it was the Enterprise (CV-6) if she was in port. I’m pretty sure the main base was Destroyed in 1939, no Cruisers or Battleships homeported there.



A good chunk of San Diego, especially the Imperial Beach area are not very high. A Storm Surge is going to do a lot of damage. The western part of I8 , like the SeaWorld area will also flood badly. Mission Beach.

My understanding is that, for a hurricane or typhoon in the Northern Hemisphere, the worst storm surge happens in the right-front (northeastern) quadrant – winds in a northern hurricane blow in a counter-clockwise pattern around the storm, and when that quadrant approaches land, its winds are blowing onshore from the ocean (such as when a hurricane traveling to the west or northwest hits the Atlantic coast of Florida, or the Carolinas), and pushing water into shore.

Based on the predicted track of Hilary, Southern California is going to be in the storm’s left-front quadrant as it approaches, and the winds that will be hitting the coastal area will be blowing in from inland. So, it might be that the surge may not be as bad as it would be if the storm were passing San Diego from further west.

That’s hopeful.

In the past 75 years i doubt we have had So Cal rain in the summer a dozen times. Maybe twice it was measurable.

Around here that was a week ago Thursday.

Flights are being cancelled at Sky Harbor in Phoenix.

The San Diego River is famous for routinely flooding out Mission Valley during even regular rains.

In Imperial Beach, it’s not just the physical damage from storm flooding they have to worry about, it’s all the raw sewage runoff from Tijuana that will inevitably be a part of it.

I thought that was a California thing.

The Salton Sea area could have some interesting experiences in the days to come. Bet the desert will bloom like it’s never done in recent history.

It is. The person whose house we’re discussing lives in / near San Diego.

Although hill slides can happen anywhere it rains harder and faster than the steep soil can absorb. Plenty of that in the tropics. China is quickly becoming famous for amazing amounts of slides due to, shall we say, less than thorough attention to proper soil engineering.

Just got off the phone with my sister in Thousand Oaks. She lives just north of 101, about eight miles from the ocean. She said the stores were jammed but she’s not particularly worried. “We get Santa Ana winds here, so what’s another 70 mph storm,” and the hillside behind her home has an excellent, strongly reinforced retaining wall.

Daughter is in Ventura County. She says they have upgraded the warnings for her area and have voluntary evacuation from the harbor area. Most of the impacts are expected up in the mountains, but the urban areas could be impacted. She lives a mile or so from the Santa Clara river.

Also, Catalina island is expecting power outage for a few days, so they are asking most people to leave.

It’s supposed to hit us here in the Inland Empire starting around 3am. Let’s see if I have power in the morning.

Everything is charged, including the power packs. The “fun time” will be mid-afternoon, when we are supposed to get the brunt of whatever is left. Flood warnings in all the upper areas of town and everything in and around and under the El Dorado Fire burn scar.

They arent. But once in a while we get a Hurricane that goes down to a Tropical Storm. This juuust might still be the lowest level Hurricane when it hits. 1939 I think?

That’s the bay area. The storms landfall is SoCall, and it might just technically be a hurricane when it hits. But it will bring high winds and up to 7 inches of rain in a short period.

We need the rain, it is Fire Season.

They have asked tourists to leave Catalina. Not allowing new boats to dock.

We had a pt in the ER tonight that might have been flown out for care, but everything is grounded.

Well, it’s 7 AM here in SoCal and its pretty much dead calm with some sprinkles. The forecast is for winds between of 25-30 mph this afternoon and about 2.5" of rain. I’m not sure that even qualifies as a tropical storm, let alone “technically a hurricane”.