Hurricane Kay Brought Gusty Winds, Flooding to Baja California, Then Rare California Tropical Threat (RECAP)

K​ay made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on September 8th in Mexico's Baja California Peninsula southeast of Punta Eugenia. The storm is now weakening rapidly as its low-pressure center begins to curl westward well to the south of Southern California.

Kay arrived in California as the state was in the midst of a high-impact, and for many, once-in-a-lifetime, heat wave. Several spots broke their all-time high temperature records multiple times in the days before Kay arrived. In the day or so before Kay arrived, firefighters worried that a large fire, called the Fairview Fire, about 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles would explode in size with the increase in winds that Kay would bring. The winds arrived, but so did the rain and significant progess on the fire was made. Fires elsewhere in the state received no beneficial rainfall and the Mosquito Fire near Sacramento grew, forcing several thousand people from their homes.

Temperatures across typically mild Los Angeles and San Diego pushed well into the 90s before the rain arrived, but were dampened as rains arrived.

The storm did bring some damage to Southern California.

Rainfall rates of 1 inch per hour triggered a rockslide on a stretch of Interstate 8 in Imperial County Friday near Mountain Spring. The peak rainfall total in the U.S. is from Mount Laguna, California, where 5.08" of rain fell.

Kay brought gusty conditions with lowered visibilities to San Diego. A navy-contracted plane slid off the runway while attempting to land at the Naval Air Station North Island near San Diego.

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