Could a hurricane actually make landfall in Los Angeles?

[RL3AO]

2) They do. Pacific typhoons often recurve and impact the Aleutian Islands which are about the same latitude as England. Something going into California would be like an Atlantic storm recurving into Northern Africa.

I seem to remember one not too many years back that recurved and went into either Spain or France, can't remember now or how strong it was when it got there. May have only been remnants.

But that would be about the same latitude as NorCal or Oregon.

That was Vince. Actually made landfall in Spain as a depression.

[MGC]

I was out in the LA area in July 1983 during a strong El Nino. I grew up watching the beach movies made in sunny California. So, decided to hit the beach one Saturday afternoon. Got down to the waters edge and started in.....jumped back out real quick as I thought I was wading into ice water. Locals said the water was way warmer that normal. Even during a strong El Nino I'm certain the water is way too cold to support a TC much north of San Diego. I know in Huntington Beach the water is cold year round.....MGC

[Andrew92]

Frequent summertime visitor to the beaches of Southern California here.

I can vouch for what a lot of people are saying about the waters off the coast being cold year-round. I typically head over there once a year in July or so for a weekend when the heat gets crazy where I live (Arizona) and let me tell you, that water is refreshing to me like you wouldn't believe. Usually in the 60s or 70s, nothing like the bathwater I hear a lot about in Florida.

As for surf and storm surge, well, waves in some areas can be quite high so I could see a hurricane producing quite a lot of rough surf in some areas. In fact I seem to recall on one visit a couple years ago that there was a hurricane well to the south that kicked up slightly higher surf than normal along Newport Beach just south of downtown LA. But LA is also a very hilly area. To those who have never been there, most of those beach towns have some very high hills alongside them, Newport excepted since it is a manmade peninsula. I haven't been to Rancho Palos Verdes, but I have heard those cliffs are quite high there in particular.

The coast also runs on a mostly southeast-to-northwest trajectory, so for storm surge to really be a factor to begin with, such a hurricane likely would have to head straight northeast. I believe in doing so, a storm would be passing over more of those cooler waters than heading north. If there is one place I could think of only based on the shape of the coast if a hurricane was heading in the ideal direction of north, it would be Long Beach. I haven't been there since I go to that area to go swimming and Long Beach is more of a seaport so I can't say if it's hilly like most of the other places though.

But hey, I've also never actually experienced a hurricane before, so take my word with a grain of salt. Just going with what I have learned about hurricanes and what I already know about Southern California.

-Andrew92