Tropical Storm Kay breaks heat and rain records across Southern California
After spending 18 hours in a closed facility, Tropical Storm Kay is leaving behind a mess in Southern California.
The National Weather Service confirmed Monday that the Pacific Ocean had recorded the third straight day of record-breaking temperatures and rains over Southern California, with the region recording its third-highest combined precipitation total since records began in 1899.
The storm is also expected to bring winds of up to 40 mph, which could gust up to 80 mph in high winds.
The storm began churning through Santa Ana National Forest late Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. It was moving through the region at 13 mph.
“This afternoon was a little unusual because the system was just a little bit too far east to be out of the mountains and then it was moving just a little bit south of the mountains,” said Tom Seltzer, a forecaster for the National Weather Service.
“So it was really the combination of it being too far east, and it was going that way and staying a little later than a typical disturbance system and it was kind of a weird storm.”
The stormsyst.com forecast model was showing the possibility of a 40-percent chance of Tropical Storm Kay developing over Southern California, which would be one of the strongest storms on record.
A 30-percent chance was showing for the development of a severe tropical storm, which could cause life-threatening hazards.
But what was not showing up in the forecast was the huge potential of flooding.
“It looks like it’s going to produce some good rainfall,” Seltzer said.
“And that rain is going to build up over water into a storm that has a really large moisture load, and we do expect it to bring some flooding down to the coast,” Seltzer said.