High Wind in Imperial Valley, California

A gas station canopy located on the corner of Adams Avenue and Imperial Avenue fell down due to strong winds. Additional reports throughout the Imperial Valley included downed trees, power poles, and light poles with the exact location of these occurrences unknown. No injuries were reported. Timing estimated based on peak wind gust at KIPL.

Tropical Storm Hilary brought abundant moisture along with strong winds to southern California on the 20th. In fact, Tropical Storm Warnings were issued for the first time in history along the southern California coast. On the 19th, a trough near the southern California coast promoted deep southerly flow that allowed deeper moisture to advect into the Southwest ahead of Hilary. Combined with jet dynamics, showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours on the 19th, leading to an isolated instance of flash flooding in southeast California. Going into the 20th, very anomalous moisture accompanied Hilary with PWATs across southeast California climbing upwards of 2-2.5 and IVT values in excess of 15 normalized standard deviations from average. Thus, flash flooding was the primary impact across southern California with a very rare high risk of excessive rainfall being issued by WPC for part of the area. Rainfall totals across southeast California were as high as 2-3, while most areas across Imperial County and eastern Riverside County generally measured around 1.50 or less. However, much heavier rainfall amounts were observed closer to the southern California coast. In addition to flash flooding impacts, several instances of damaging winds occurred as strong low level winds upwards of 50-60 knots at 850 mb and 925 mb mixed to the surface in some cases. Several communities around the Salton Sea were under a voluntary evacuation order as a precaution for any potential impacts stemming from flash flooding and strong winds. Multiple reports of flooding impacts and wind damage primarily across Imperial County resulted from this event. No injuries were reported.