Two hurricanes churning in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico are sending high surf toward Southern California that will overlap with unusually high tides, bringing hazards for beachgoers and possible coastal flooding.
The hurricanes, Polo and Odalys, are not expected to make landfall in California, and only isolated showers are forecasted in parts of Southern California on Monday, but other areas of the Southwest are likely to get substantial rain.
Polo, a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 140 mph, is on track to make landfall in Baja California Sur on Monday, unleashing heavy rains and flooding there.
Hurricane Odalys, with 90 mph winds, is nearly 900 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California and is forecasted to turn away from land and weaken.
Polo intensified quickly to become a major hurricane, fueled by warm ocean waters.
“To have a storm of this intensity persist as a strong hurricane all the way into Baja is unusual,” said Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather & Water Extremes at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“That is partly because the ocean temperatures are so warm off of Mexico,” he said, “that it’s helping the hurricane retain its structure and strength to a degree that wouldn’t normally be the case.”
The hurricanes developed amid a marine heat wave and a strong El Niño, the pattern of ocean waters warming in the central and eastern Pacific.
Hurricane Nolo is also bringing strong winds and heavy rains to Hawaii this weekend.
In L.A. and Ventura counties, four- to seven-foot surf is forecasted on Monday and Tuesday, along with strong rip currents and possible coastal flooding, said Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Oxnard office.
“Ocean water is going to creep up higher than normal,” Phillips said. “We also have high tides going on at the same time as the higher surf, so that’s when we start to see more of those coastal flooding impacts, beach erosion.”
The weather service issued a coastal flood advisory for L.A. and Ventura counties on Monday and Tuesday. For Orange and San Diego counties, a coastal flood advisory will be in effect Monday through Wednesday.
Forecasters say beachgoers should be cautious, checking with lifeguards on whether it’s safe to swim and staying off rock jetties.
Earlier this month, intense waves from Hurricane Marie damaged beachfront homes in parts of Southern California and chewed away at beaches.
In Long Beach, where waves slammed into the seawall and homes, crews have been reinforcing portions of the boardwalk and are distributing sandbags.
As Polo reaches Mexico, Southern California will probably see some unusual clouds and a few showers, Ralph said. But the region will be on the storm’s outer edge as it passes through Baja California and then mainland Mexico and into the desert southwest.
Arizona and New Mexico will probably get substantial rains, he said, and the storm could also bring enough moisture farther north to give the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs a small boost.
Times staff writers Terry Castleman and Alex Wigglesworth contributed to this report.
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