Study shows Hilary was no longer tropical storm over California, but caused massive damage

Hilary, the storm that pummeled the Coachella Valley and much of California last year, was no longer a tropical storm when it reached the state but still carried the impacts of one, according to a new analysis by the National Hurricane Center.

Hilary was a powerful Category 4 hurricane at sea. It weakened when it came ashore in Mexico's Baja California, but previously experts believed it was still a tropical storm when it passed into California.

It's been six months since the storm devastated the valley on Aug. 20, causing road closures, heavy flooding and millions of dollars worth of damage. It was the fifth-wettest day in Palm Springs’ history. One of its most notable local impacts was mudflows on Horizon Road in Cathedral City that residents are still recovering from after the mud invaded their homes.

The National Hurricane Center's tropical cyclone report states Hilary resulted in three fatalities and over $900 million worth of damages in the United States and Mexico.

Then-Hurricane Hilary moved offshore of southwestern Mexico before weakening when it turned north toward the Baja California peninsula and the United States, said Brad Reinhart, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center. He said it made landfall as a tropical storm in Baja California, became a post-tropical cyclone shortly after and then dissipated over northwestern Mexico. It no longer met the criteria to be a tropical storm.

But the U.S. felt the effects of the tropical storm anyway, according to the center’s report. Reinhart, the report’s primary author, said that while it was still a tropical storm over Baja California it was bringing tropical storm conditions through wind and heavy rainfall to portions of Southern California and the southwestern United States, and then these impacts continued after it dissipated.

“Tropical storm impacts can often extend well away from the center of the storm, and that's exactly what we saw in this case was a lot of the heaviest rain and the strongest wind impacts actually occurred well away from the center of the cyclone,” he said.

The downgrade from tropical storm doesn't make much of a difference to residents who experienced its most adverse effects.

Rick Ravanello, a resident on Horizon Road, said what Hilary is called doesn’t change things. His home was likely one of the most damaged on the street and he still hasn’t been able to move back in. It just wiped out everything, he said.

“Honestly, that night it really didn’t rain much right here on the street,” he said. “It was just a wall of mud and water.”

Across the street, Michael Sereno and his partner May Xu also haven’t been able to move back. He said the storm had a tremendous impact on their home.

“The damage we had, it felt like a hurricane … how does that change things by them trying to downgrade it?” he said.

Reinhart has a similar view.

"I understand that there's some nuances to this and it might be confusing to some people," he said, adding, "what's clear is that ... this was a very impactful system and nothing in our post-analysis, you know, changes that."

Desert Sun staffer Taya Gray contributed to this report.

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Hilary wasn't a tropical storm when it reached California, study finds