Will Hurricane Marie Make Landfall in California? What to Know

As Hawaii braces for the impacts of a major hurricane this weekend, a separate tropical weather maker spinning farther to the east in the Pacific is gearing up to dump rain across portions of the Desert Southwest and California. Read on for why forecasters are warning that it could be a soggy Labor Day weekend in this corner of the U.S.

Pockets of Heavy Rain in Store for California and the Southwest

The entire West Coast is experiencing a long-awaited break from the hot and dry summer. The setup fired up on Wednesday when an unusually strong jet stream storm pushed into the Pacific Northwest. This system will continue to creep farther inland into the interior West as the weekend progresses.

The parade of storms moving into the Northwest will pull up some of the moisture associated with Hurricane Marie, a storm churning off the coast of Hawaii. The latest forecast models signal that California and the Southwest will be under the gun for a stream of precipitation originating with Marie.

Sea surface temperatures off the coast of northwest Mexico and Southern California are trending warmer than average as El Niño continues to intensify and exert a greater influence. Although it is possible that the water is warm enough to support a long-lasting tropical weather event moving into California, it is not likely that the Golden State will see a direct strike.

Hurricane landfalls in California are exceptionally rare. Even the notorious Hurricane Hilary from 2023 did not officially come ashore in the U.S. In fact, the only tropical storm on record to ever make landfall in California dates back to 1939.