Powerful Hurricane Hilary churns off Mexico’s coast, rare storm watch issued for California

Hurricane Hilary, right, off Mexico's Pacific coast. Photo / AP

Hurricane Hilary churned off Mexico’s Pacific coast as a powerful Category 4 storm threatening to unleash torrential rains on the mudslide-prone border city of Tijuana before heading into Southern California as the first tropical storm there in 84 years.

Forecasters warned the storm could cause extreme flooding, mudslides and even tornadoes across the region.

Homes have been protected with sandbags. Photo / AP

Hilary grew rapidly in strength early Friday before losing some steam, with its maximum sustained winds clocked at 215km/h in the evening, after falling from 230km/h. Nevertheless, it was forecast to still be a hurricane when approaching Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Saturday night and a tropical storm when approaching Southern California on Sunday.

Hilary was already disrupting life.

Major League Baseball has rescheduled three Sunday games in Southern California, moving them to Saturday as part of split-doubleheaders. The National Park Service closed Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve to keep people from becoming stranded amid flooding. Cities across the region, including in Arizona, were offering sandbags to safeguard properties against floodwaters.

No tropical storm has made landfall in Southern California since September 25, 1939, according to the National Weather Service. The watch was posted for a wide swath of Southern California from the coast to interior mountains and deserts. The US National Hurricane Centre warned of potential threats to life and property.

The latest forecast pointed to Hilary making landfall along a sparsely populated area of the Baja peninsula on Sunday, about 330 kilometres south of the Pacific port city of Ensenada.

As it moves north, it could bring heavy rains to Tijuana. Mayor Montserrat Caballero Ramirez said the city was tracking the storm closely and clearing out storm drains.