Eastern Pacific Hurricane Hilary has the potential to bring significant rainfall- and wind-related impacts to southern California, the southern Great Basin, and the Desert Southwest during the weekend and early next week, although the storm will become a post-tropical cyclone and rapidly weaken after making landfall in northwestern Mexico or southern California.
Early estimates indicate that rainfall could total 5 to 10 inches in areas that typically only receive a few inches of rain per year. By early next week, the interaction between lingering tropical moisture and a Pacific cold front could result in locally heavy showers spreading as far north as the northern Rockies and northern High Plains.
Meanwhile, a punishing heat wave will grip much of the South and the nation’s mid-section, including the western Corn Belt, where temperatures approaching or reaching 100°F could adversely affect filling summer crops.
