Do hurricanes ever hit CA?
susie
rare from what I understand. They mostly do what this one is projected to do and go out to sea. But this one has been kinda interesting to watch. It was just classified as a Cat 1 a little earlier today. Then BANG Cat 3
Not in my 4+ decade lifetime.
No hurricane has hit the California Coast since records began, but a tropical storm with 50 mph winds did come ashore at Long Beach on Sept. 25, 1939.
Hurricane has hit San Diego
http://www.weather.gov/pa/fstories/2005/0105/fs11jan2005b.php
1858 HURRICANE STRUCK SAN DIEGO, SAY RESEARCH METEOROLOGISTS
Jan. 11, 2005 — Most hurricanes affect the United States' East Coast, but the West Coast is also vulnerable, as shown by an 1858 tropical cyclone that brought hurricane-force winds to San Diego. The historical data and contemporary analysis of this event were presented today by a NOAA scientist at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in San Diego, Calif. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
"On October 2, 1858, estimated sustained hurricane force winds produced by a tropical cyclone located a short distance offshore were felt in San Diego," said Christopher Landsea, the co-author of a paper on the 1858 hurricane and a hurricane researcher at NOAA's Hurricane Research Division at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, Fla. "Extensive damage was done in the city and was described as the severest gale ever felt to that date, nor has it been matched or exceeded in severity since."
very rare, one off shore in 97, and one in the 30"s i believe
Never had one in California yet, at least not that I know of. Funny, I live in the Sierras and we are under cloud cover today. I don't think it would hit this far north however! :-)
You'd need a godawfully big, intense high pressure zone off of the California and Mexico coast to get it to happen.
"Do hurricanes ever hit CA? "
No, we prefer fires and earthquakes here.
Seriously, as I understand it, the water is too cold off the coast of Ca. so a storm like this would peter out by the time it came that far north since it's the warm water that feeds them.
If the storm finds it's way into the warm waters off the Gulf of California then they can, and do, come up the Colorado River at Yuma and cause a lot of rain and flooding in California as well as Arizona, Utah and Colorado. Rare, the last one was about four or five years ago. They die out before hitting the California coast because the water is deep and cold and cold water kills hurricanes. So the key is if it would jump Baja and into the Gulf of California.
If the storm finds it's way into the warm waters off the Gulf of California then they can, and do, come up the Colorado River at Yuma and cause a lot of rain and flooding in California as well as Arizona, Utah and Colorado. Rare, the last one was about four or five years ago. They die out before hitting the California coast because the water is deep and cold and cold water kills hurricanes. So the key is if it would jump Baja and into the Gulf of California.
Nope