Hurricane Hilary: Category 4 hurricane approaches California

A rapidly intensifying hurricane with 145mph (233km/h) upwind velocity is headed toward the US South West.

The Category 4 hurricane, named Hurricane Hilary, is predicted to archetypal marque landfall successful Baja California, a Mexican state, connected Saturday morning.

Forecasters accidental it volition past suffer upwind velocity and go a tropical storm, tracking north-west toward confederate California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

It would beryllium the archetypal tropical tempest to deed California successful implicit 80 years.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the imaginable for dense rain, ranging from 3-6in (7-15cm) successful immoderate areas, and up to 10in successful others, could pb to "significant and rare" impacts for parts of confederate California and confederate Nevada.

In San Diego, the NWS has issued a informing for the "high potential" of flash flooding.

Nearly 26 cardinal radical successful the US South West are nether flood watch.

As of Friday morning, the centre of the hurricane was located astir 400 miles (643km) southbound of Mexico's confederate edge.

However, the NWS advisory connected Friday greeting said upwind speeds person "rapidly intensified by a remarkable" 74mph implicit the past 24 hours.

The storm's conditions successful the US are predicted to highest connected Sunday and Monday, the NWS said.

It is "exceedingly rare" for a tropical tempest to travel disconnected the water and marque landfall successful California, Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service successful San Diego, told The New York Times.

The past clip a tropical tempest made landfall successful confederate California was successful Long Beach successful 1939.

Experts accidental the terrible and abnormal upwind events plaguing the US - and respective areas crossed the globe - are being influenced by human-caused clime change.

In the aftermath of the hottest period connected record, July 2023, according to NASA, the deadliest wildfire successful modern US past dispersed crossed Hawaii connected 8 August, sidesplitting astatine slightest 111 people.

The harm was escalated by hurricane winds passing done the area.