Who could have seen this coming to Southern California?
A heat wave described as the longest and most intense in many years and a rare hurricane at almost the same time. News headlines across the country are talking about the weather in California.
After more than a week of an excessive heat warning that won’t end till tomorrow night, comes hurricane watches and warnings for the ocean waters off coast of Baja and a tropical storm watch for the border area that will affect San Diego and most of Southern California.
And the heat wave and the hurricane will collide tomorrow night when strong winds from the tropical storm are expected to kick up and increase the fire risk with vegetation having been baked by the high temperatures for the last week or so.
Historically, the last real hurricane to ever bring major trouble to San Diego was way back in 1976. Coincidentally, it happened during the same week on the September calendar, and it also started with a “K” just like this new one, Hurricane Kay.
Hurricane Kathleen was a lot worse, and the National Weather Service in San Diego says we won’t see as much damage as that one did those many decades ago. And with all the extreme heat we’ve had, some cooling rain from this storm is not really all that bad news.
(Image National Weather Service San Diego)