For the first time in 84 years, a tropical storm has made landfall in California. Hurricane Hilary, with maximum sustained winds of 130mph (210km/h) and a central air pressure of 943mb, advanced towards the Baja California peninsula this weekend as a category 4 hurricane, before weakening and arriving as a tropical storm in southern California late on Sunday.
Tropical storms are less strong than hurricanes and have maximum sustained winds below 74mph, while hurricanes are at or above this speed. The last time a tropical storm made landfall in southern California was in 1939, when it flooded Los Angeles and killed nearly 100 people.