A California hurricane is a tropical cyclone that affects the state of California. Typically, only the remnants of tropical cyclones affect California. Since 1900, only two still-tropical storms have hit California, one by direct land from the coast and one after making landfall in Mexico. Southern California has only been hit by an intact hurricane once in recorded history.
That hurricane approached San Diego on October 2, 1858, as a Category 1 storm with 80 mph winds. No hurricane has hit California. The reason for this is that hurricanes lose their energy as they move to colder waters. The water off the coast of California comes from Alaska and is very cold.
However, Southern California has experienced heavy remnants of hurricanes that have lost their energy as they moved north. Only two storms that still maintained their tropical storm status have made landfall in California. There are many factors that need to be considered for a hurricane to occur. In short, wind direction and cold water are the main reasons why we don't see hurricanes in California.
In the Pacific Ocean, they average 60 degrees, although slightly warmer water near Hawaii would explain why that state sees an occasional hurricane. Along the East Coast, the Gulf Stream provides a source of warm water (above 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 26.5 degrees Celsius), helping to maintain the hurricane. However, once the hurricane heads north of Cabo San Lucas, it encounters much colder ocean waters. The first is that hurricanes in the northern hemisphere form in tropical and subtropical latitudes and then tend to move west-northwest.
In the North Atlantic Ocean during peak hurricane season, these warm ocean waters are found in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean waters along the U. In the Atlantic, such movement often brings the hurricane to the vicinity of the east coast of the U. It has been an active hurricane season so far in the Atlantic and with so many named storms expected this year, the list of 21 shortlisted names may not be enough. In recorded history, hurricanes have impacted every state in the Atlantic and Gulf, from Texas to Florida, including Maine and Canada.
These storms are called hurricanes when they occur in the North Atlantic Ocean and the Northeast Pacific. If the stars align in terms of conditions, a Cat 4 or 5 storm moves very quickly over unusually warm waters further north, it's not entirely out of scope for Southern California to be hit by another strong tropical storm, or even a weak Cat 1 hurricane. Hurricanes form in the Pacific Ocean, just like in the Atlantic, but none of these storms seem to reach the continental U. There is certainly more real estate in the Atlantic for hurricanes to thrive, with a larger water strip above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
The national hurricane center even sets its prediction for the number of hurricanes expected before the season starts. In an average year, there are 6 hurricanes, and it's not uncommon for one or more of these hurricanes to make landfall in a Gulf Coast or East Coast state. Meanwhile, over the Pacific Ocean, this east-west flow tends to direct most hurricanes into the open ocean, away from the continent. During the peak hurricane season, from mid-August to the end of October, California's warmest waters are about 75 degrees on the beaches of San Diego.
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