Desert Storms, Lunar Crash Landing, and Tracking Bird Migrations

Hilary Arrives

Hurricane Hilary made landfall in Southern California over the weekend, bringing wind gusts of up to 80 miles per hour and dumping a half foot of rain in some spots across the region. The storm had intensified into a Category 3 system by the end of last week, losing steam as it approached the US before eventually arriving as a tropical storm (see trajectory). 

Landfall of tropical storms and hurricanes along the Southern California coast is exceedingly rare. The city of San Diego only saw one tropical storm during the 20th century—a system in 1939 that caught most of the population off guard and led to almost 100 deaths. Climate scientists attribute the storm in part to the current El Niño weather pattern, which warms waters in the eastern Pacific and fuels storm activity. 

California's desert resort town of Palm Springs, which typically sees a half-inch of precipitation per summer, logged multiple inches of rain over the course of a few hours. See photos from the storm's landfall here. 

Separately, as the rain was falling, Ventura County was hit with a 5.1-magnitude earthquake. No injuries were reported as of this writing. 

Spain Wins World Cup

Spain was crowned winner of the FIFA Women's World Cup yesterday morning after defeating England 1-0, becoming just the fifth nation to win after the US, Germany, Japan, and Norway. The victory also makes Spain just one of two countries—alongside Germany—with World Cup wins for both its women's and men's teams. Watch a recap here.

The lone goal came in the 29th minute off the foot of Spain's Olga Carmona, whose post-score celebration—where she lifted her jersey to reveal a message on her undershirt—piqued viewers' curiosity. Spain was blocked from padding their lead in the 69th minute after English goalkeeper Mary Earps deftly saved a penalty kick from Spain's Jennifer Hermoso. See game stats here.

The victory for Spain comes less than a year after 15 of the national team's players demanded Coach Jorge Vilda be removed, alleging a controlling atmosphere. Only three of those players played in this tournament, while Vilda remained as manager. See a timeline of the tensions here.

Lunar Dreams Dashed

Russia's Luna-25 lunar probe reportedly crashed while trying to land on the moon's south pole over the weekend, cutting short the country's first mission to the moon in almost five decades. The uncrewed spacecraft was said to have unspecified issues while entering the lunar orbit. 

The lunar south pole has long attracted the attention of scientists due to the presence of frozen water but has yet to be explored by an on-the-ground rover. Because the moon has a tidal lock—meaning it's effectively stuck in place as it orbits the Earth—almost all scientific studies of the south pole come from observations from orbiting spacecraft. 

India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is the next to make an arrival, with a landing attempt scheduled for this week.  

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