Hurricane Hilary, which is heading towards Mexico's Pacific coast, has experienced a decrease in strength, yet still poses a risk of "life-threatening" flooding, caution US meteorologists.

With maximum winds reaching up to 100mph (175km/h), it has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm by the National Hurricane Center.

Anticipated to make landfall later on Saturday, the storm has already brought heavy rainfall to parts of Mexico's Baja California peninsula and the southwestern United States.

Hilary is projected to weaken into a tropical storm before reaching southern California, marking the first tropical storm to hit the state in over eight decades.

As of the most recent update at 21:00 GMT on Saturday, the hurricane is approximately 285 miles (459km) southeast of Punta Eugenia, the westernmost point of Baja California.

"Hilary appears to be rapidly losing strength," remarked John Cangialosi, a senior hurricane specialist at the NHC. "The eye is diminishing, and the cloud cover in the eye wall and rainbands has been warming over the past few hours," he added, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Previously, Hilary was a formidable Category 3 storm, with wind speeds reaching up to 130mph.

The NHC has indicated that some areas of southern California and southern Nevada could experience up to 10 inches (25cm) of rainfall, leading to an expectation of "dangerous to catastrophic flooding."

San Diego's National Weather Service issued a warning for the heightened potential of flash floods, with nearly 26 million people in the southwestern US placed under flood watch.

In response, US President Joe Biden stated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had positioned personnel and supplies in the affected region. He urged residents in the storm's path to follow precautions and guidance from local officials.

Parts of Mexico are under a tropical storm watch, and the government has placed 18,000 soldiers on standby to assist in rescue operations.

Ahead of the storm's arrival, Major League Baseball rescheduled three games in southern California, and SpaceX postponed the launch of a rocket from its central California coast base until at least Monday.

Additionally, to prevent visitors from getting stranded during potential flooding, the National Park Service closed Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve in California.

Local officials in cities across the region, including in Arizona, are offering sandbags to residents seeking to safeguard their properties against potential floodwaters.

Hurricanes and tropical storms are somewhat common in Mexico. But the last time a tropical storm made landfall in southern California was in Long Beach in 1939.

Experts say the 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.

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