by Georgia Daniel
Hurricane Hilary, which developed into a Tropical Storm, hit Southern California August 27, 2023. Tropical Storm Hilary was the first tropical storm to hit California since 1997, based off of “Fox Weather”.
Tropical Storms are very rare for California because most storms develop near the equator in warmer water temperature, when it goes north it loses its “gas” because it depends on the warm water to keeps its winds high.
Hilary at its peak reached a Category 4, but by the time it made landfall it was a tropical storm. It entered the Pacific Ocean on August 12th, it was expected to be catastrophic and contain life-threatening floods.
California was not structurally prepared for such a high intensity storm. The storm left flooded roads, fallen trees, and mudslides in Southern California. There were no fatalities in California. Overall, the storm was less severe than anticipated.
I asked Upper School science teacher, Mrs. Lupton, if she thought California would suffer from the effects of the storm. She said “absolutely, for several months, depending on how quickly the government steps in.”
Tropical Storm Hilary was an unexpected, impromptu, and devastating storm. Californians made it through though with no casualties which is better than what was expected. Hopefully this is the last serious cyclone California has for a while though because they are not prepared for storms much stronger than what they received.
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