A powerful hurricane with wind speeds of 130mph (215km/h) is heading toward Mexico and the southwestern United States.

Named Hurricane Hilary, this Category 4 storm is projected to initially hit Baja California, a Mexican state, on Saturday morning.

Afterward, meteorologists anticipate its wind strength to decrease, transforming it into a tropical storm as it moves northwest toward southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.

If it does make landfall in California, it will be the first tropical storm to do so in over 80 years.

President Joe Biden mentioned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has strategically positioned resources and personnel in the area to respond to potential needs.

President Biden urged people in the storm's path to take necessary precautions and heed advice from local authorities.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of the possibility of significant rainfall ranging from 3-6 inches (7-15cm) in some regions and up to 10 inches in others, with potential "rare" impacts on parts of southern California and southern Nevada.

The NWS issued a flash flooding warning for San Diego, indicating a "high potential" for such events.

Approximately 26 million individuals in the southwestern US were under flood watch.

As of Friday afternoon, the hurricane had slightly weakened and its center was located around 325 miles southwest of Mexico's southern border.

Hilary is expected to downgrade to a tropical storm by late Sunday before arriving in southern California, as predicted by the NWS.

Continuous heavy rainfall until the following Wednesday could result in severe flooding across parts of the southwestern US.
Hurricanes and tropical storms are somewhat common in Mexico.

But it is "exceedingly rare" for a tropical storm to come off the ocean and make landfall in California, Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego, told the New York Times.

The last time a tropical storm made landfall in southern California was in Long Beach in 1939.

Experts say the severe and abnormal weather events plaguing the US - and several areas across the globe - are being influenced by human-caused climate change.

In the wake of the hottest month on record, July 2023, according to Nasa, the deadliest wildfire in modern US history spread across Hawaii on 8 August, killing at least 111 people.

The damage was escalated by hurricane winds passing through the area.

May God have mercy.

Oh Lord come to their aid

That is very serious, "the first tropical storm to do so in over 80 years." So good that the occupants of the area affected took decisive action.

Too bad