High Wildfire Danger in California from Santa Ana Winds
Wildfire Burns Next to Multi-Million Dollar Homes West of Los Angeles
The Pacific Palisades fire burned 40 acres on a hillside and prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes.
High Wildfire Danger in California from Santa Ana Winds
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At a Glance
Conditions will be conducive for rapidly spreading wildfires in California late this week.
Offshore “Diablo” and “Santa Ana” winds will blow through much of the state.
Very dry air and warm temperatures will create dangerous fire conditions through Friday.
The high winds can down trees and power lines and cause wildfires to spread rapidly.
Strong winds will raise the danger of rapidly spreading wildfires in parts of California through Friday, during what is typically the peak time of concern for wildfires in the Golden State.
The National Weather Service has posted red flag warnings for parts of Northern and Southern California Wednesday through Friday. These warnings include the hills around the San Francisco Bay Area, the northern Sierra and Siskiyou foothills and a large area of Southern California from Ventura County to San Diego County.
The combination of a southward-plunging jet stream from the northern Rockies to the Desert Southwest and high pressure behind a cold front building into the Great Basin will help drive strong offshore winds in California during the latter half of this week.
In Northern California, these winds, known locally as Diablo winds, are expected to be strongest Wednesday night over the hills north of downtown San Francisco, according to the National Weather Service. Some gusts up to 60 mph are possible.
In Southern California, Santa Ana winds are expected to ramp up Thursday and persist into Friday, with gusts below passes and canyons of 60 mph or higher.
The offshore winds will also bring heat and low relative humidities, near-ideal conditions for rapid spreading of existing and newly ignited wildfires.
It’s already been a hot week in parts of the state. The nation’s hottest temperature Monday was in Anaheim (98), two degrees hotter than Death Valley, a typical U.S. hotspot.
These offshore winds should relax by Saturday, but some computer forecast models suggest another round of offshore winds may blow through the state early next week.
Unlike most locations in the Lower 48 states, California has pronounced wet and dry seasons. The last weeks of the dry season happen in fall.
“California’s Mediterranean climate makes it unique, as our warmest months coincide with our driest,” said Jan Null, certified consulting meteorologist and adjunct professor in the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University.
Both Los Angeles and San Francisco typically pick up only 9% of their average annual precipitation in the six-month “dry season” from May through October.
This amounts to a six-month average rain total of only 1.3 inches in L.A. and 2.25 inches in San Francisco.
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