Winds of 215 kilometers per hour and waves of four meters: Mexico deploys more than 18,000 soldiers before the threat of Hurricane 'Hilary'

Hurricane Hilaryhas maintained this Friday afternoon sustained winds of 215 kilometers per hour, which raises its alert to category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale on its way to the coasts of Baja California and Baja California Sur. The National Water Commission (Conagua), in charge of monitoring this type of phenomenon, predicts intense rains in the Mexican Pacific, and some less marked rainfall in the rest of the country. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has assured that the Government is aware of the tropical storm and that the Army carries out preventive actions with the DN-III Plan, a relief measure for the population that is activated to anticipate any disaster. The deployment has 18,738 soldiers in the territories of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Jalisco, Colima, Guanajuato and Michoacán.

In the United States, Hilary has triggered something unusual, the first-ever tropical storm watch for Southern California. Its rains will impact from San Diego to San Bernardino County on Sunday and Monday.

The hurricanewas about 495 kilometers south of Cabo de San Lucas (Baja California Sur) around 18.00 in the afternoon, and moves northwest at about 19 kilometers per hour. It has maintained winds of 215 kilometers per hour in recent hours, reaching 260 kilometers per hour in some of its gusts. Both Conagua and the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) have maintained the hurricane prevention zone from Punta Abreojos (Baja California Sur), to San José de Las Palomas (Baja California), occupying the entire Gulf of California peninsula. The authorities have alerted the population about the possible presence of waves that could exceed four meters on the coasts of Baja California.

⚠️ #Meteorological Warning, #Hilary is 575 km south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, #BajaCaliforniaSur, as #Huracán category 4

All information ⬇️https://t.co/cVcQ6N5BK1 pic.twitter.com/8gnBRlLtaP

— CONAGUA Climate (@conagua_clima) August 18, 2023

Conagua expects the tropical storm to cause electrical discharges, landslides, increased levels of rivers and streams and even overflows and floods in the northwest territories of the country. And it asks the population to be attentive to the warnings and recommendations of the authorities.

The rains caused by the interaction between the hurricane and the instability of the atmosphere will reach the Mexican States in different ways. Rainfall will be intense in Baja California Sur, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora; very strong in Aguascalientes, Chihuahua, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Oaxaca and Zacatecas; forts in Baja California, Chiapas, Mexico City, State of Mexico, Morelos, Querétaro, Tabasco and Veracruz; and will leave some showers in Campeche, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala and Yucatán. Coahuila will be the territory least affected by the rains, which will be isolated.

Hilary has increased markedly in strength since Thursday, when it became a Category 3 hurricane. At that point on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the authorities predict winds of between 210 and 249 kilometers per hour; which can leave damage to the structure of small buildings and even the destruction of mobile homes or strong flooding conditions in coastal areas. The gusts of wind of 280 kilometers per hour that it has reached during the early morning leaves a more intense panorama. The authorities believe that this category – which starts at 250 kilometers per hour – can cause damage to protective structures, the collapse of roofs and flooding in inland land.

The Pacific hurricane season begins in May each year — June 1 in the case of the Atlantic — and ends in late November. This year, it started with Cyclone Adrian and Tropical Storm Bret: the first approached Mexico through the Pacific area, and the second through the Atlantic. They were followed by other phenomena such as Hurricane Beatriz, which threatened the coasts of western Mexico with winds of 120 kilometers per hour and ended up dissipating off the coast of Jalisco.

Impact in the United States

The National Hurricane Center has described as "impressive" the winds that Hilary has caused in the Pacific. These can cause moderate to heavy rainfall throughout this weekend, in California and southern Nevada. For the first time in history, the NHC has put the entire of Southern California on tropical storm watch alert, stretching from the Mexican border to San Bernardino County, a vast region that runs from East Los Angeles to the Nevada border.

The meteorological service forecasts for these areas showers with a large amount of water that can cause the rise of streams and even floods. However, he has indicated that the power of Hilary may decrease from Friday night, when the storm is on its way north with cooler waters and drier winds.

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