Santa Ana wind gusts top 100 mph in Southern California
The first Santa Ana wind event of the season for Southern California is expected to continue into Wednesday night, and it will bring quite a few risks, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
These howling and often dangerous winds occur due to high pressure sitting over the Great Basin. Winds rotate clockwise around the high pressure, which sends these northeasterly winds down through the mountains and canyons, picking up speed as they traverse downhill toward the coast.
A Santa Ana wind event can often lead to downed trees and power lines, enhanced wildfire risk and dangerous crosswinds, forecasters say.
"Wind gusts of 50-70 mph can be expected in favored spots in the mountains, and gusts can reach 20-30 mph in the lower elevations," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said. Winds on Magic Mountain, located in the San Gabriel mountains north of Downtown Los Angeles, reportedly gusted to 104 mph early Wednesday morning.
Winds this strong can lead to difficult travel for high-profile vehicles and could even possibly knock them over. While not expected with this event, Santa Ana winds can lead to power outages in some cases.
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Experts advise residents to properly secure or stow away outdoor items that may be tossed around and become dangerous projectiles in gusty conditions.
Recent rain in the area will likely lower some of the fire risk in Southern California as Los Angeles has received 1.77 inches so far this month. However, Zehr warned that even though recent rain has made wildfire fuels less dry than last month, locally drier areas still exist, which will create an elevated fire risk.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, nearly 17 percent of California is under exceptional drought, including Southern California's Kern County, which is in the range of the Santa Ana winds.
The fire risk is expected to be highest later Wednesday, as the winds will have had time to further dry out the ground by that point and the humidity levels are likely to be at their lowest point.
"The flow out of the mountains will cause the air to dry out, leading to relative humidity values in the teens for a time, mostly on Wednesday," Zehr said.
AccuWeather meteorologists expect the winds to begin to lessen Thursday as the high pressure shifts away from the region. Another wind event, albeit slightly weaker, may ramp up again by the weekend.
"While not as strong as the current event, we expect a low-end Santa Ana wind event to develop as we head into the weekend," Zehr continued.
Winds could pick up north to south as early as Friday then continue Friday night into Saturday.
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