Hilary strengthened into a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Mexico on Thursday and is on track to pass along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. It threatens possible impacts in parts of the West as a weaker system. Hilary is forecast to rapidly intensify through the end of the week into a Category 4 hurricane with winds of at least 130 mph, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center warned. … Hilary is expected to weaken significantly before it reaches Southern California and parts of the Southwest, but could potentially bring significant impacts to these areas in the form of heavy rain and flooding. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said on Wednesday “multiple years’ worth of precipitation” could potentially fall in some of California’s driest areas.

Related articles: 

• New York Times: Hilary becomes a hurricane and is rapidly strengthening
• CBS News: Hurricane Hilary on path toward Southern California
• San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area thunderstorms and rain showers in weather forecast
• Yale Climate Connections: Tropical activity heats up in Atlantic and Eastern Pacific
• Nature: Opinion – I’m a climate scientist. Here’s how I’m handling climate grief