Pacific storms take center stage, plus a flood risk in Desert Southwest

Canada set a national record high for this late in the season for a second day in a row Wednesday, and heat is set to blast again today. While we await the next storm in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific is churning out some intrigue.

Weather watch

Pacific storms. Hurricane Lorena is on course to strike Baja California in about 48 hours as a much-diminished storm. Slowing down considerably as it reaches land, the main threat from it will probably be heavy rain, with flood watches up for Arizona Thursday as moisture streams north. Kiko is also a powerful Category 4 well east of Hawaii — aiming that direction, it should eventually weaken considerably on approach but will need to be watched.

Canada record. For the second day in a row, Canada reached for midsummer and pulled out a record September reading. Instead of a tie like Tuesday, this one — 105 degrees (40.8 Celsius) at Ashcroft — set a new high mark for the month and so late in the season. Temperatures are again forecast to rise toward and beyond the century mark there and into Washington state on Thursday.

Lightning links

Tropical storm may form in the Atlantic by this weekend. (Jonathan Erdman, The Weather Channel)

How rare are hurricanes in Hawaii? (Mark Puleo, AccuWeather)

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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