Post-tropical storm lashing southwest with coastal flooding, heavy rain and strong winds

By Andrew Freedman, Chris Dolce, CNN

(CNN) — The remnants of Tropical Storm Rachel are soaking Southern California and the Desert Southwest after moving over land early Sunday morning. The storm is bringing a threat of coastal flooding, high winds and inland flash flooding Sunday.

A Level 3 of 4 threat of flooding rainfall has been issued for Sunday from southern Nevada, including Las Vegas, southwest Utah and northwest Arizona. This means numerous flash flood events are expected, with significant impacts possible.

The holiday weekend means extra visitors to national parks in this region, many of which are under an elevated risk for flooding concerns. Grand Canyon, Zion, Death Valley and Arches National Park could all see flooding rainfall this weekend.

San Diego and Las Vegas could see an inch or more of rainfall from this storm. That is about double the rainfall they usually see in all of October in San Diego, and triple that in Las Vegas. This raises the likelihood for flash flooding in desert areas, which cannot rapidly absorb intense bursts of rainfall.

Peak wind gusts in and around San Diego are expected early Sunday morning, and will most likely range from 20 to 40 mph in lower elevations to 50 to 60 mph in the mountains.

San Diego was under a tropical storm watch on Saturday due to the storm, for only the second time on record. The first was for Hurricane Hilary in 2023, the first year that such forecast alerts began to be issued for this region.

There were infrequent and tropical weather systems that affected Southern California before 2023, according to the NWS forecast office in San Diego, but they did not trigger such watches or warnings.

Wind gusts between 45 to 65 mph are expected inland across the Desert Southwest in parts of Arizona, southern Nevada and Utah on Sunday.

Coastal flooding has been a significant concern with this storm, particularly in areas that were already been damaged by high waves and unusually high tides in recent months.

This could flood roads and damage structures along the coast, especially around times of high tide Sunday and Monday. The Sunday morning high tide is between 9 to 10 a.m. PT and the evening one peaks around 10 p.m. PT, followed by another morning high tide Monday around 10 a.m. PT.

A coastal flood warning is in effect from the Malibu coast and Los Angeles County beaches to coastal San Diego County until Sunday afternoon.

According to the National Hurricane Center, “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” are likely along the coasts of Southern California and northern Baja California through Monday.

Coastal water levels have already been running unusually high in California due in part to the near-record strong super El Niño event in the tropical Pacific, which results in higher-than-average water levels and coastal flooding along the West Coast. In some areas, homes have already been lost to the sea. Waves from powerful offshore hurricanes in the eastern Pacific have worsened the coastal flooding situation in Southern California in particular.

“Major coastal flooding has already been occurring in some areas, with observed water levels running as much as 1.5 feet above predictions,” the Hurricane Center stated. The NHC warned that hazardous coastal conditions are expected to continue next week, even as the system dissipates over the southwestern states.

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Meteorologist Allison Chinchar contributed to this report.