There is an old paper by Kerry Emanuel that showed tropical cyclone intensities that might be expected in a doubled CO2 atmosphere, "The dependence of hurricane intensity on climate""
ftp://texmex.mit.edu/pub/emanuel/PAPERS/...
If you look at that you'll see that intensities that occurred in the 1987 climate in Southern Baja California would be expected in Southern California. Certainly in any climate with warmer sea surface temperatures it would be expected that hurricane range would increase. Hurricanes would still be a rare event in California, but they would probably occur several times a century, rather than once every few centuries.
Kano is incorrect in believing that hurricanes would travel east to west at California's latitude. As tropical cyclones move poleward, the steering currents go from being primarily easterly (in the trade wind regime) to primarily westerly (in the mid-latitude westerlies). That's known as "recurvature". If you look at any plot of tropical cyclone tracks, you'll see this effect. Here is a plot that shows this (it's a little busy, but I think you can pick out the turn to the east as storms go northward):
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/ima...
jim z is correct that sea surface temperatures are usually cool in California, but from personal experience I can tell you that there were several times in the last decade in which I was swimming in water that was 75 F or more, and it actually reached 80 F for a short time on one occasion. There are several caveats to that, though. One is that although extreme Southern California had temperatures like that, central and northern Baja California was much cooler. Another is that warm water does not usually extend very deep in California when it occurs, so hurricane winds would stir the ocean and bring up water from depth that is MUCH colder than this.
ONE MORE THING: I see that there is another answer saying that hurricanes would move away from California. This is not necessarily correct. Tropical cyclones that affect California are almost always late summer or fall storms. The reason for this is that when the mid-latitude storm track begins moving south again at the end of summer, it can bring large upper level troughs west of California and even Baja California. These troughs are the key element in turning the storms to the east and accelerating them toward the US southwest.
To put global warming + El Ni?o into perspective here: In 1997, the sea surface temperatures off SoCal reached as high as 75°F. That's only 5 degrees short of the 80-degree threshold. It was also a record high, for the longest time. That is, until 2014.
This past August, the sea surface temperatures in SoCal were measured by buoys as 77°F... and still rising. Then, in September, the seemingly unthinkable happened: a young teenage fisherman *caught a wahoo* ― a tropical fish that can only tolerate exceptionally warm waters, ones of *at least* 80°F if I'm not mistaken ― about 5 miles off the coast of Dana Point.
What's remarkable is the fact that it only took a *moderate El Ni?o* to beat the record high sea surface temperature set by the strongest El Ni?o on record. Of course, 2014 is indeed the warmest year on record (due in part to methane release) atmosphere-wise, to be sure... but then again, that raises an alarming question: How warm will the next 1997-scale El Ni?o push the SoCal sea surface temperatures if runaway methane release continues? Even now, if this is only a moderate El Ni?o, then it becomes clear that even today such a strong El Ni?o could easily push the SoCal sea surface temperatures over the edge. That's alarming to say the least...
Not sure what the current theory on hurricanes is right now, more frequent, less frequent but more severe, I doubt one is going to hit California soon. Don't fret though all the typical weather patterns along with wild fires are being attributed to AGW, so don't feel left out.
The evidence indicates that it isn't very unlikely. Hurricanes usually require water temperatures above 80F in order to form. This isn't uncommon on the East Coast, but on the West Coast the waters rarely go above 70F. That means the waters would have to increase a full 10 degrees for hurricanes off the West Coast for hurricanes to become as common off the West Coast as they are off the East Coast.
Most projections show the Earth's atmospheric temperatures rising maybe 2-5 degrees at most in a century. The warming in the water would be even less in that time frame. Because of the physical properties of water, it takes a lot of heat to raise the temperature of water even a small amount. The temperature rise of the oceans actually lags behind the temperature rise in the atmosphere by many years.
Finally, even if hurricanes became more common off the West Coast, they would continue to travel away from California not towards it. As another answer mentioned, due to the Coriolis effect, hurricanes travel from East to West. This brings hurricanes directly towards the East Coast, but carries hurricanes away from the West Coast.
So, in other words, most hurricanes will continue to hit the Bible Belt in the South. And we will continue trying to tell conservatives in the South that global warming is the reason why their houses get destroyed by hurricanes more and more often every decade. And they will continue to claim that global warming is a hoax. They'll continue to get angry at us liberals for trying to prevent their homes from being destroyed by yet another hurricane. Pat Robertson will continue to blame gay marriage for hurricanes, and they'll continue listening to him instead.
If it got that warm that the Pacific went from 65 degrees (I used to scuba dive it so I know that is close to a normal temperature for our local waters) to close to 80 degrees, hurricanes would probably be the last thing we worried about. It hasn't warmed in 17 years so I guess I would have to wait for it to resume warming to make an educated guess. My uneducated guess would be that I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
No because at your latitude hurricanes travel east to west, so a Pacific hurricane/typhoon would most likely move away from California.
What global warming?
Top climate scientists say there is no man-made Global Warming.
The Great Global Warming Swindle
Look up Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). That might help you understand why they don't.
Kano has a great answer!
Not if the Reptilians control hurricanes through holographic 5th dimension weather modification, and Hollywood through the vast international conspiracy of crappy movies.
Seriously, I don't know but the waters in the Gulf of Calif might be shallow and warm enough.
Global warming is a myth
Hurricanes almost never hit California, and the few times it has, they have been very small minor ones, usually when waters get unusually warmer around the equator off South America's Pacific coast. At worst, we receive mild tropical storms.
The reason due to the lack of hurricanes in California is of course is due to the Northern Pacific waters being made up of cold currents which is antithetical to the formations of hurricanes.
Could global warming lead to warmer currents in the Pacific, and thus hurricanes increasing in likelihood in California?
If we are lucky!
