A resident in Sun Valley, California inspects a tree uprooted by floodwater from Hurricane Hilary (Picture: AP)
Tropical Storm Hilary is drenching the southwestern state of Nevada with rainfall after devastating southern California and Mexico.
The desert and mountain states of the west coast are set to experience a ‘historic amount of rainfall’ as Hilary makes its way north through the United States, the National Hurricane Center said on Monday.
Hilary became a Category 4 Hurricane on Friday after sustaining wind speeds over 145 miles per hour.
Hilary made landfall as a tropical storm in Baja California on Sunday. It then traveled north through the Mexican peninsula, threatening the city of Tijuana with flooding and mudslides.
Oak Glen, California was evacuated due to mudslide conditions (Picture: ROGER SEHEULT via REUTERS)
By Sunday evening, it became the first tropical storm to hit the US state of California since 1939.
Traveling north through the southern California desert, Hilary drenched Palm Springs with about 3 inches of rainwater – about half the average total rainfall the region typically sees over the course of a year.
In mountainous San Bernardino County, torrential rainfall caused flooding, which uprooted trees and scattered mud and debris across the region.
The town of Oak Glen, California, as well as several other smaller communities, were placed under evacuation orders on Sunday.
Cars are stranded by the flooding in Sun Valley, California (Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Sunday also became the wettest day on record for San Diego, which saw a total of 1.82 inches of rainfall from the storm.
The National Hurricane Center downgraded Hilary to a post-tropical cyclone early on Monday morning as it crossed the state border into Nevada.
The Las Vegas Valley was placed under a flood watch on Monday as a deluge of rainfall threatened the desert state with unprecedented flooding.
The National Hurricane Center warned of ‘life-threatening flash, urban, and arroyo flooding including landslides, mudslides, and debris flows’ across Nevada and Idaho, as well as parts of northern California and Utah.
Tropical Storm Hilary knocked out cell towers in Mexicali, Mexico (Picture: REUTERS)
The small community of Mount Charleston saw a total of seven inches of rainfall as the storm passed directly overhead. A boil water order was issued for the small town of less than 400 people after the storm knocked out the community’s utilities.
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency on Sunday, and asked Nevadans to prepare for destructive floods.
‘As the state takes the necessary steps to prepare for flooding and severe weather, I strongly urge all Nevadans to do the same,’ the governor said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
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The Las Vegas Valley was placed under a flood watch on Monday as a deluge of rainfall threatened the desert state with unprecedented flooding.