Very Early Pacific Hurricanes Providiing Bit Of Southwest U.S. Drought Relief

Because of El Nino, the number of tropical storms and hurricanes along or off the United States East Coast is supposed to be lower than usual this year.

Hurricane Bianca off the west coast of
Mexico on Saturday.  

Not so in the eastern Pacific. Unusually warm El Nino waters have already produced two strong hurricanes out there, which is unprecedented for so early in the season.  

Andrew spun out to sea into cooler waters and died last week. Bianca reached Catagory 4 status this weekend, and is now getting weaker as it moves into cooler waters. 

It should still hit Mexico's Baja Penninsula as a tropical storm. (Hurricanes thrive in warm water, and fall apart in cooler water)

It Baja California does get a tropical storm, it will be the earliest in the season on record that the region has had such a storm, says Dr. Jeff Masters. 

Moisture from these hurricanes won't end the drought in southern California and parts of Arizona, but the storms are providing a bit of unseasonable moisture to the region.

For instance, Phoenix, Arizona recorded 0.16 inches of rain Friday. That's a drop in the bucket, but it's extremely unusual for rain to fall in Phoenix in June.

It's too late in the year for cold fronts to press as far south as Phoenix, so no rain from those. Later in the summer, the desert heat lowers the air pressure in the Desert Southwest, bringing in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and thunderstorms. But that never happens until July or August. June is usually dry, dry dry. 

Moisture from Bianca is going to draw even more unusual moisture into southern California and Arizona, so look for more welcome rain in that region. Just not enough to come close to easing teh drought.

And if there's lightning, that could set off forest fires, so as you see, this weird hurricane rich weather pattern out there isn't going to be all good.

Another problem: Some of this tropical moisture could find its way into parts of flood ravaged Oklahoma and Texas. They surely don't need any rain at the moment, so this could be troublesome.

Some of the moisture from the hurricanes could even interact with weather systems in the Midwest next week, making rain heavier and making local flash floods more likely. Though I'll emphasis most of the moisture for these storms will come from the Gulf of Mexico. 

A wide stripe of the nation from Oklahoma and South Dakota, across the Midwest to northern New England are expecting two or more inches of rain over the next week. 

Further north, from central California on up into Washington, near record heat is forecast for the next few days. (It had been blessedly cooler than normal in recent weeks in this region.) 

The dry heat this week will worsen the already terrible drought along the central and northern Pacific coasts of the United States.