Hurricane In The Desert!!?

We're in the middle of the Mojave Desert

Hurricane? Really?

To be fair, we aren't actually going to be hit by a hurricane. The Baja Peninsula and SoCal on the other hand may not be as fortunate. If you've been following the news you know that southern California has been under its first ever Tropical Storm warning (since that system was implemented back in the 1930s) since yesterday or the day before as tropical storm Hilary morphed into CAT 4 Hurricane Hilary. It's making its way up the Baja Peninsula and due to hit SoCal tomorrow. I believe by then, after hitting landfall, it will weaken in intensity but the major side effects of wind and heavy rainfall will be felt by nearly the entire Southwest. SoCal, Arizona, and Nevada will be the hardest hit.

The first flash flood warnings were issued here in the Las Vegas Valley yesterday ca3:45PM. By 4:30PM the Las Vegas Valley was being hit by rain that local forecasters simply referred to as the 'monsoon' rains (as we are still in the middle of the monsoon season). However, Hilary will be throwing a big monkey wrench into the mix and the National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting a year's worth of rain to hit us starting Sunday and into Monday. The governor of Nevada has activated the National Guard, cable companies are readying assets to ensure cable services aren't badly affected and NV Energy posted the following:

The utility company said that it is carefully monitoring the storm and “has taken extra precautions ahead of the storm to ensure the safety and security of our communities and our infrastructure.” Crews are on standby, ready to respond to potential outages caused by extreme weather. 

We still expect there to be power outages and cable disruption. Cell phone towers should hold up well enough I'm guessing. As a result of all this I may not be posting anything for a few days.

Yesterday

4:14PM The last of the blue skies for the day

4:28PM and the rain has started. It lasted until approx. 11PM but I was still hearing thunder at 1AM