Tropical Storm Kay drew within 140 miles of San Diego on Friday and unleashed heavy rainfall and winds in excess of 100 mph in high-elevation parts of Souther California.
Favorable weather and the work of firefighters have helped to further contain the Radford Fire near Big Bear, according to the San Bernardino National Forest. As rain from Kay reached Southern California, firefighters were able to hold the blaze at 1,088 acres on Friday, and containment increased to 59%. Rain on Thursday had also helped with containment. By Thursday night, the fire had been at 40% containment, up from the 2% containment the day prior.
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The extended heat wave across California continued to be felt in Los Angeles on Friday as the city hit 102 degrees at around 12:30 p.m. local time. The city was already in the 90s before 8 a.m. on Friday morning, but those in the City of Angels will experience a quick change in temperature as Kay approaches closer. Accuweather forecasts that Los Angeles will be done with 100 and even 90-degree days for at least the next week. Temperatures on Saturday are forecast to only hit 85 degrees, nearly 20 degrees cooler than Friday.
When rain started falling in Palm Springs, California, on Friday afternoon, it quickly accumulated enough to become the wettest September day in three years for the city. Prior to today, Palm Springs has only recorded measurable precipitation in September twice since 2018 — 0.04 inches on Sept. 24, 2021 and 0.98 inches on Sept. 2, 2019. As of Friday evening, Palm Springs has measured an estimated 0.26 inches of rain, making it the wettest day the city has seen since 2019.
Multiple trees, branches and power lines were reported down throughout several San Diego suburbs as the outer bands of Tropical Storm Kay continued to wreak havoc with widespread downpours and powerful wind gusts. Communities hit hard include Dulzura, Camp, Valley Center, Santa Ysabel, Alpine, Rancho Bernardo and Lakeside, according to emergency officials. Trees were also reported down in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, just east of San Diego. Motorists were being alerted to avoid certain areas due to blocked roadways. Only a few hundred utility customers were reported without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Wind gusts were 30 to 50 mph at lower elevations, with gusts as high as 110 mph on mountain tops. The county was under a high wind warning while an areal flood watch was issued for the eastern region.
Wind gusts in the mountains of California have exceeded 100 mph at Cuyamaca Peak. As of Friday afternoon, the 109 mph wind gust reported at the peak is the strongest wind gust from Kay in California so far. Other locations such as Sill Hill and Big Black Mountain reported wind gusts above 95 mph. Five locations have recorded a wind gust of at least 82 mph in the California mountains above 1,000 feet in the past 24 hours.
Rainfall across California on Friday has topped 4 inches in some spots as a result of Kay. Pine Valley, California, has so far recorded 4.16 inches of rainfall, the most recorded in the state so far from Kay as of Friday afternoon. Mountain Springs, Mount Laguna and DeAnza Springs have all recorded precipitation above 3 inches. Additional rain could add to these totals as Kay continues impacting Southern California into the weekend.
Officials in California are alerting residents that the power grid is showing signs of stress and urging them to conserve energy as much as possible to avoid rolling blackouts. The much-needed rain from Tropical Storm Kay is unfortunately not expected to provide much relief from the intense and prolonged heat wave in the coming days, according to forecasters.
The California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which manages the state’s grid, was predicting a peak demand of 46,411 megawatts from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday, still well below the current 55,362-megawatt capacity, due to a “prolonged heat wave pushing up energy demand and tightening available power supplies,” the agency said.
The alert asks residents statewide to take these steps to help alleviate strain on the grid:
• Setting thermostats to 78 degrees or higher
• Avoid using major appliances like washing machines, dishwashers and ovens.
• Turn off unnecessary lights.
• Avoid charging electric vehicles.
This time of year, the sight of people prepping sandbags ahead of a tropical cyclone is more common along Florida's Atlantic Coast or parts of the Gulf Coast. But sandbags were distributed and deployed throughout the San Diego area ahead of Kay's approach, and for good reason. The tropical storm has made it within 140 miles of San Diego, close enough to drop an estimated 0.48 of an inch of rain and counting at San Diego International Airport, which is the city's official site of weather records. The more than a quarter-of-an-inch of precip was the first measurable rain in San Diego since 0.02 of an inch was recorded back on May 20, and is enough to make Friday the rainiest day in San Diego since way back in early spring when 0.27 of an inch was measured at the airport on March 28.
Extreme Meteorologist Reed Timmer intercepted violent flash flooding with debris along Interstate 8, west of Ocotillo, California, near the border with Mexico where a flash flood warning was in effect Friday afternoon.
“Violent flash flood out here right along I-8, headed toward Ocotillo,” Timmer said in the video, shouting over the sound of rushing water. He reported the flood was growing exponentially, with small boulders blocking portions of the interstate's westbound lane.
California is stepping up its firefighting resources and expanding the number of emergency personnel in anticipation of heavy rain and flooding due to Tropical Storm Kay. Potential impacts from Kay could extend into the weekend as the storm continues to move northward and rain will likely become more widespread.
The governor’s Office of Emergency Services said it was prepositioning over a dozen additional units and numerous emergency equipment covering various counties to respond to any severe weather as well as to the several wildfires that continue to intensify across the state.
Over 100 flights at San Diego International Airport have been delayed, according to FlightAware.com. The airport has seen far fewer cancelations as of noon, local time, with only 20 flights at the airport canceled as Kay’s winds and rainfall sweep through the city. The storm was roughly 140 miles south of San Diego as it continued its trek along the Baja California Peninsula. Tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 205 miles, mainly to the east of the eye over the Gulf of California, though wind gusts of hurricane force were reported in the mountains of Southern California and east and northeast of San Diego, according to the NWS.
As of 11 a.m. PDT, Tropical Storm Kay was moving northwestward, west of Mexico’s northern Baja California Peninsula. Heavy rains were falling over the northwestern parts of the country, as well as over Southern California. Maximum sustained winds were clocked at 45 mph as the storm moved along at 13 mph, roughly 140 miles south of San Diego.
Tropical storm warnings remain in effect for Punta Eugenia northward along the west coast of the peninsula to the U.S.-Mexico border, Bahia de Los Angeles northward along the east coast of the peninsula and southward to Puerto Libertad in mainland Mexico.
As heavy rain and gusty winds impacted a wildfire burn scar near Potrero, a town on the California-Mexico border, extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer explained why the flash flood and debris flow potential is increasing. “This is how a debris flow gets started. You get heavy rain over a scar like this,” Timmer said in a video shared on Twitter. “The water has a lot of difficulty absorbing into the terrain and picks up a lot of debris. It then gets swept out…in the form of dangerous debris flow.” Timmer noted the winds were gusting 60-80 mph at times as Kay continues to move closer.
The first flash flood warning in the U.S. as a result of impacts from Kay was issued for parts of Southern California. The National Weather Service office in Phoenix issued the warning for Seeley, Ocotillo and Coyote Wells in Imperial County, California, late Friday morning. The warning is expected to expire around 3:30 p.m., PDT. While Kay won’t make landfall in the U.S., it will still bring the threat of flooding.
The lime green areas show parts of Imperial County, California, that are under a flash flood warning. The dark green areas represent areas under an areal flood watch and brown areas under a high wind warning.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced on Friday that a homeless shelter in the city’s Midway district that can house 125 people is now open, increasing San Diego's total shelter capacity to 1,666 beds. The opening of this shelter could not come at a more critical time as rain and wind from Tropical Storm Kay are picking up in San Diego. “Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to quickly stand up 150 beds in Midway in this new sprung structure,” San Diego’s Regional Task Force on Homelessness said in a tweet Friday morning. “This new space will save lives and make a difference.”
The end of the heat is on the horizon for San Diego. Temperatures topped out at 95 on Saturday, Sept. 3, and 94 on Thursday, Sept. 8. But once the impacts from Kay are over, more seasonable and less humid weather will return to the region. San Diego’s average temperature for this time of year is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but by Tuesday, temperatures will be a touch below normal, topping off in the mid-to-upper 70s. Temperatures will climb back to average by the end of the week. According to AccuWeather’s monthly forecast, temperatures will remain below 85 for the rest of the month.
As California residents know, the first places to experience high winds will be the mountains. Cuyamaca Peak, San Diego county’s second highest peak, standing tall at 6,500 feet elevation recorded a wind gust of 109 mph early Friday morning. Just to the east, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, a 93 mph wind gust was measured at Kwaaymii Point.
Nearly 12 miles to the north of both of these mountains is another weather station at 6,200 feet up on Mt. Laguana. Early Friday morning, the weather station was reporting wind gusts in the upper 60s. You can see the chaos on the Mt. Laguna Live Camera, where the rain is flying and pine needles are scurrying around on the roof.
Because few people are affected by the mountaintop winds, these gusts often go unreported. The Mt. Laguna and Cuyamaca Peak station readings are thanks to weather stations installed by UCSD's HPWREN research network. At lower elevations, where most people live, winds were gusting into the 30-50 mph range.
A steady light-to-moderate rain was falling in the San Diego area during the morning rush hour, extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer reported on Friday. Timmer pointed out that there was a “pleasant” petrichor smell in the area, which usually occurs when rain falls after a prolonged period of warm and dry weather. Hear more from Timmer below, including where he said the greatest risk of flooding is expected.
As Tropical Storm Kay continued its northwest march Friday morning, rain from its outer bands began making its way into western Arizona. As of around 9 a.m. local time, some scattered precipitation moved through Yuma, which is situated in the southwest corner of the state near both the California and Mexico borders. Temperatures were in the low 80s there Friday morning and AccuWeather forecasters expect the rain to pick up throughout the day as moisture from Kay spreads farther across the region. Yuma bills itself as the "Gateway to the Great Southwest" and Kay is poised to send precipitation right through that gateway and across much of the western half of Arizona and even into southern Nevada as far north as Las Vegas into Saturday.
The Bobcat Fire scorched 116,000 acres of land in the Angeles National Forest back in 2020, and now, with the threat of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Kay, the area will be vulnerable to flash flooding as well as mud and debris flows. Fires can leave areas at risk for flooding and mudslides for years due to a lack of vegetation and charred ground. Even less rain than normal can trigger a flash flood as rain that would normally be absorbed can runoff quickly. In addition, burned soil can act as a water repellent, similar to pavement, according to the National Weather Service.
Members of the San Bernardino County Fire Department hose down hot spots from the Bobcat Fire on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020, in Valyermo, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
CBS Los Angeles reported that surrounding communities like Monrovia and Sierra Madre are “hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.” The Sierra Madre Police Department told CBS that Bailey Canyon Park may be forced to close due to the inclement weather triggered by Kay.
As of 8 a.m. local time Friday, Kay’s maximum sustained winds remained around 50 mph, down from 60 mph around 2 a.m. Friday morning. The National Hurricane Center said the government of Mexico has “discontinued tropical storm warnings for mainland Mexico south of Puerto Libertad, for the east coast of the Baja California Peninsula south of Bahia de Los Angeles, and for the west coast of the Baja California Peninsula south of Punta Eugenia.” A tropical storm warning was still in effect for parts of the west coast of the Baja California Peninsula.
Kay is moving to the west-northwest at 13 mph and is about 165 miles south of San Diego. The storm is expected to turn toward the west-northwest and slow down later Friday before turning fully to the west on Saturday. Heavy, flooding rain from Tropical Storm Kay continued to track northwest into Southern California and Arizona Friday morning. “Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 205 miles (335 km) mainly to the east of the center over the Gulf of California,” the NHC said.
AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell captured video of cloudy skies and calm water along the coast in San Diego Friday morning. As Kay churns northwards, the skies will turn dark and waves will crash on the shoreline. A gale warning is in effect for waters along the coast of San Diego. As winds pick up, seas of 8-12 feet are expected, which will make navigation hazardous for any vessel on the water.
(Photo/Bill Wadell)
A soggy forecast is in store for San Diego. AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting 1-2 inches of rain for San Diego, from Tropical Storm Kay. On average, San Diego receives 9.79 inches of rain annually, which means up to 20% of the city’s annual rainfall is possible as Kay moves by.
The rainfall can cause flooding and erosion specifically in areas with little to no vegetation. Residents in San Diego and surrounding towns are preparing ahead of the rain. According to CBS 8, the county and Cal Fire are providing free bags and sand at numerous fire stations.
Officials in Mexico are blaming three fatalities in the southwestern state of Guerrero on Kay, according to Reuters. Impacts from Kay started on Saturday, Sept. 3, in southwestern Mexico. Heavy rain caused flooding and strong winds knocked down trees resulting in numerous power outages. According to the Guerrero Civil Protection, two adults and a child died when their vehicle was swept away by floodwaters in a rural area of Acapulco, which is a coastal town located 230 miles south of Mexico City, Reuters reported.
Gusty offshore winds to the north of Tropical Storm Kay allowed for a warm start to the morning in Southern California on Friday — just as rain from the storm arrived. The easterly winds descended the mountains in the area, causing temperatures to climb. At 5 a.m. PDT the temperature at the San Diego Airport was 89 F, which is more than 20 degrees above the normal low of 67 for the date and even a couple of notches above the normal high temperature for Sept. 9 of 87 degrees. Humid conditions added to a tropical feel to the air, but cloud cover and a gusty breeze suppressed AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures by a few degrees. The temperature dropped by a couple of degrees as light rain began falling, with a temperature of 87 being reported shortly after 7 a.m. PDT. Elsewhere, other locations in Southern California had temperature readings in the upper 80s to near 90 F, including 88 at Brown Field, Lemon Grove and Carlsbad, and 87 at Vista.
A radar installation at the Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California, located to the northeast of Los Angeles, is currently not in operation, and the National Weather Service said the radar will remain out of service through next week. This radar serves the western Mojave Desert and its outage comes at a time when impacts from Tropical Storm Kay are starting to become more widespread in Southern California. NWS officials in Las Vegas said in order to make up for the gap in coverage of weather conditions, radars at the NWS offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and Hansford, California, will be utilized. AccuWeather’s radar Friday morning showed Kay’s heavy rain pushing across the California-Mexico border and toward the San Diego area.
According to AccuWeather meteorologists, wind gusts of over 50 mph will precede Kay’s rainfall over Southern California, especially over the mountains and through the canyons. High wind warnings have been put in place from San Diego to Chino, which is just east of Los Angeles. With more than 97% of the Golden State experiencing moderate drought conditions or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the gusty winds will bring an elevated fire risk to the region.
As Kay inched closer to the United States on Thursday, parts of Kay could already be seen as far inland as Las Vegas. On Thursday afternoon, the outer cirrus clouds from Kay were visible in the Vegas sky, according to NWS Las Vegas. Moisture from Kay is expected to reach as far inland as Phoenix and even Las Vegas as the tropical system potentially scrapes the West Coast.
As Kay made landfall in Baja California Sur on Thursday, video of flooding was shared online from the hurricane's impact. Footage from the municipality of Mulegé showed flooding encompassing part of the municipal and leaving multiple homes partly underwater. In addition to the flooding, the peninsula experienced hurricane conditions for several hours with sustained winds of 75 mph at landfall, according to CNN.
As Kay continued its north-northwest track along the coast of Baja California and California, the storm also moved closer to Las Vegas. Tropical systems within 400 miles of Las Vegas are quite rare, and only three were hurricane strength when they were within 400 miles of Vegas, according to NWS Las Vegas. Most notably, Hurricane Nora in 1997 and Hurricane Doreen in 1977 both came within 400 miles of Las Vegas. Even though Kay is now a tropical storm, the rarity of a tropical system making impacts in Sin City remains and the tropical moisture could bring thunderstorms as far inland as Las Vegas.
The governor of the Mexican state of Baja California announced that classes at all education levels would be suspended on Friday, Sept. 9, due to impacts from Kay. “Friends, in order to prevent possible incidents as a result of the weather conditions caused by Hurricane Kay, classes at all public and private education levels are suspended in Baja California on Friday, September 9,” Marina del Pilar said over Twitter in Spanish. Due to the potential for flooding rainfall and wind damage, Kay is a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes in Mexico. Widespread wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph are expected on the western coast of the Baja Peninsula. “I invite you to take the necessary precautions in your homes and not put our loved ones at risk,” del Pilar added.
The wave of wet weather and increased moisture from Kay should bring some relief to Southern California, though strong winds could agitate burning wildfires. Kay is forecast to bring 2-4 inches of rainfall in the mountains of Southern California, though localized amounts could be as high as 8 inches. While this rainfall could assist with wildfires, thunderstorms and gusty winds pushing into the region could bring an elevated fire risk due to how dry the region has been lately. The majority of Southern California has been experiencing severe drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
A firefighter takes a hose to a burning property while battling the Fairview Fire Monday, Sept. 5, 2022, near Hemet, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
If Kay weakens to, and remains, a tropical storm by Saturday, Sept. 10, it could be the closest tropical storm to approach Los Angeles since the 1970s. According to the current Eye Path forecast, Kay is expected to bring rain to Baja California, Mexico, and Southern California on Saturday before it curves west and starts to dissipate. No tropical storm has been within 200 miles of Los Angeles since the year 2000, according to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell, but Kay might surpass that distance and then some.
Hurricane Hyacinth (1972), Hurricane Doreen (1977) and Hurricane Norman (1978) are some of the closest storms to approach Los Angeles as they weakened into tropical storms. However, none of the storms retained that strength before sweeping through California.
Kay made landfall over the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane Thursday afternoon, local time, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm crashed ashore near Bahia Asuncion with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, moving north northwest at 14 mph. Within a few hours, Kay had weakened to a tropical storm as it continued to move along the west coast of Baja California.
CAL FIRE and San Diego County are distributing sandbags to those who live in unincorporated areas as southern California braces for any impacts from Tropical Storm Kay’s damaging winds and heavy rains.
Forecasters say the track of the storm may miss the region altogether. But just in case, emergency officials were making sand and bags available for free at nearly 30 area fire stations, from Escondido to Borrego Springs. Some locations were only providing bags for residents’ use.
All eyes were on Hurricane Kay Thursday as it sideswiped Mexico's Baja California peninsula, packing heavy rains and 80 mph sustained winds. Zooming out a little bit on AccuWeather's satellite tool revealed the other hurricane making headlines, Earl, which was swirling just south of Bermuda with 105 mph sustained winds. For a time on Thursday afternoon, the two hurricanes were situated at almost the exact same latitude, according to NHC data. Kay was churning north-northwest at latitude 26.6 North when the NHC issued its 2 p.m. EDT update and Earl was heading north-northeast at latitude 29.7 North. The near-parallel hurricanes made for a spectacular satellite shot.
Each storm is forecast to curve outward away from the North American landmass in the hours and days ahead, but as AccuWeather forecasters have been warning, Kay is expected to bring potentially dangerous impacts to Southern California and the desert Southwest, and Earl could make its presence felt along the Eastern Seaboard in the form of coastal flooding and rough surf.
A wide satellite shot showing Hurricane Kay near Mexico in the eastern Pacific basin and Hurricane Earl near Bermuda in the Atlantic basin on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022.
It has been abnormally dry across Southern California since the start of 2022, but widespread rain from Kay will help to boost annual rainfall totals to levels closer to average. From Jan. 1 through Sept. 7, Downtown Los Angeles has measured just 2 inches of rain, or 19% of normal, and San Diego has measured 2.51 inches of rain, 37% of normal. Both cities are predicted to receive between 1 and 2 inches of rain in the coming days, which could double the rainfall totals up to this point in 2022. Higher rainfall amounts are forecast in the surrounding mountains, elevating the risk of mudslides and debris flows, particularly around burn scars.
The impending rain may not be enough to erase this year’s rainfall deficit, but it will far exceed the typical monthly rainfall totals. The average September rainfall is 0.12 of an inch in San Diego and 0.13 of an inch in Los Angeles. The monthly rainfall records were set when another tropical system, the Long Beach Storm of 1939, made landfall in Southern California on Sept. 25 of that year. During that month, Los Angeles measured 5.67 inches of rain while San Diego measured 3.14 inches of rain.
Rain from Tropical Storm Kay is well needed across the drought-stricken Southwest, but too much rain could lead to flash flooding across two states. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 97% of California is under a severe drought — a level 3 out of 5 on the intensity scale. In the neighboring state of Nevada, just over 50% of the state is experiencing an extreme drought — level 4 out of 5. Just south, in Arizona, 60% of the state is experiencing a moderate drought — level 1 out of 5. Tropical downpours from Kay will spread from the California-Mexico border as far north as Las Vegas, Nevada. These downpours could result in flash flooding, mudslides and travel delays. Although the rain will be beneficial to help ease some drought concerns, much more will be needed to completely erase the ongoing drought.
Rain, clouds and wind associated with Hurricane Kay are expanding across Baja California as the system moves northward toward the United States. Kay downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday evening, but people should not let their guard down. “Despite the loss of wind intensity as Kay moves northward, the impacts to California will be notable,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham. Kay has been rated as a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes in the U.S. and a 2 on the scale for Mexico due to the elevated risk of flooding, mudslides and travel delays. In the U.S., the worst of the rain is forecast to impact San Diego and the areas north and east of the city, but rain could spread inland as far north and east as Las Vegas and Phoenix.
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