Hurricane Rosa threatening Southwest U.S. with flash flooding

Hurricane Rosa was on a track Sunday to drench northwest Mexico and parts of the U.S. Southwest, prompting tropical storm warnings for the Baja California coast and flash-flood watches for parts of four U.S. states.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Rosa should still be at tropical storm force when it hits the Baja California Peninsula and Sonora state Monday with flooding rains. It’s then expected to move quickly northwestward as it weakens, bringing five to 10 of rain to the Mogollon Rim of Arizona and around five cm to the rest of the desert Southwest, Central Rockies and Great Basin. Some isolated areas might be more.

Rosa still had maximum sustained winds of 140 kph early Sunday and it was centred about 570 kilometres southwest of Punta Eugenia in Mexico. It was heading north at 19 kph.

The National Weather Service announced flash flood watches through Tuesday for areas including southern Nevada, southeastern California, southwestern and central Utah and the western two-thirds of Arizona.

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Forecasts call for heavy rainfall in the watch areas, which include Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, with possible flooding in slot canyons and normally dry washes and a potential for debris flows from recent wildfire burn scars.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Sergio was growing in the Pacific and could grow to near major-hurricane force within days, though it posed no immediate threat to land.

Sergio had winds of 85 kph early Sunday and it was centred about 780 kilometres south of Manzanillo, Mexico. The storm was moving west at 19 kph.