Even as four wildfires continued to burn in Los Angeles County Wednesday, the blazes were already rewriting the record books.
The Santa Ana winds are dry, powerful winds that blow down the mountains toward the Southern California coast. The region sees about 10 Santa Ana wind events a year on average, typically occurring from fall into January. When conditions are dry, as they are right now, these winds can become a severe fire hazard.
The National Weather Service issued its most serious red flag warning for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties this week as the fires still burn
Santa Ana winds occur when air flows west from a region of high pressure over the dry Great Basin to lower pressure off the California coast, According to Accuweather. As that cool interior air flows over and through mountain passes, it accelerates, sinks and compresses.
Another round of fire weather could last for much of next week in Southern California, bringing new dangers as Pacific Palisades, Altadena and surrounding communities struggle to assess the damage of devastating wildfires earlier this month.
January has been unusually sunny across the Bay Area, but a shift in the weather is expected Saturday and Sunday. The return of the marine layer will bring increased cloud cover and lower temperatures,
As the catastrophic wildfires continue to rage in Southern California, some Los Angeles residents are not waiting around to see if their city survives. Instead, they are packing up and moving across the country to the relative safety of the Northeast.
In recent days, however, the region’s powerful Santa Ana winds—which have been fanning the flames—have begun to slow down. This lull has offered firefighters a reprieve and a key opportunity to make progress against the blazes, but forecasts suggest the Santa Ana will return next week. What are these gusts, and how have they become so strong?
Besides burning the most urban area, the Eaton and Palisades fires are the largest ever for California in January. Alexandra Syphard, a senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute, said their timing and path through the city “may have no precedent in history.”
Even as four wildfires continued to burn in Los Angeles County Wednesday, the blazes were already rewriting the record books.
So far, the strongest winds recorded during the fires were around 100 miles per hour, which is considered hurricane-force strength. The strong Santa Ana winds are still expected to remain throughout the week, which is not ideal for the ongoing fight to contain the fires.
This time around, so many folks have posted the same Santa Ana and wildfire quotes to the point that the brilliant is becoming banal.