Daniel Swain in the New York Times: Californians Unsure if Tropical Storm Will Be Friend or Foe

Experts said the storm’s arrival was certainly unusual; it was one of the closest approaches of an intact tropical cyclone to California in decades, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

But it still remained to be seen whether Tropical Storm Kay would add to the devastation. The storm’s effects are expected to continue through Saturday morning.

“It’s a pretty complicated situation,” Mr. Swain said. “I think Kay does have some potential to be a net benefit weather event.”

Mr. Swain said that the storm was unlikely to drop enough rain on urban areas near the coast to be dangerous on its own. (He noted that, since Southern Californians are notoriously bad drivers on slick roads, there could be an elevated risk of traffic accidents.)