Weather tracker: tropical storm makes landfall in California for first time in 84 years

Storm Hilary expected to cause severe flooding, as other parts of US and Mexico put under extreme heat warnings

For the first time in 84 years, a tropical storm has made landfall in California. Tropical Storm Hilary, with maximum sustained wind gusts of 130mph and a central air pressure of 943mb, advanced towards the Baja California peninsula this weekend as a category 4 hurricane, before arriving as a tropical storm in southern California late on Sunday. The last time a tropical storm made landfall in southern California was in 1939, when it flooded Los Angeles and killed nearly 100 people.

Hilary triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning, extending from the Mexican border to just north of Los Angeles amid rainfall totals estimated to have reached 70-150mm (3-6in) across southern California. This amount of rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening flooding, and would amount to more than a year’s worth of rain across parts of California and Nevada.

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