When Will the Next Hurricane Strike California?

The state hasn’t been hit by such a storm since 1858 — but the chances rise in El Niño years like this one

Hurricane Linda, a Category 5 monster in the Pacific Ocean in 1997, briefly looked like it might head toward Southern California. Image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Nobody could have expected the tempest that barreled in from the ocean on that Saturday morning, ripping boats from their moorings and destroying homes. There were no round-the-clock warnings on TV, no…