Strong Santa Ana winds that are expected to sweep across Southern California on Sunday night are expected to spark more wildfires and large offshore waves off the coast. Strong winds of up to 40 mph with gusts of 50 mph or more are moving toward Southern California, making dangerous wildfires even more unmanageable.
Firefighters warn that a major Santa Ana wind event that raged through Tuesday night and continues into Thursday could spark significant fires.
Santa Ana winds have battered Southern California in recent weeks, toppling trees and setting fires in parts of the state. But, with forecasters expecting a warming climate that will make wildfires more frequent and dangerous in the coming years, the Santa Ana torch is likely to do much more damage in developing countries.
The risk of large fires in the late season could increase as the region dries up, Gershunov added, but there is no data on how often Santa Ana wind events will coincide with dry fuels. Guzman - Moralesa's research suggests that Santa Anas activity has declined by about 20 percent in recent years, reducing the likelihood of wind-related fires in the Southern California region.
The reason why the fire season in Santa Ana is better known is the large number of fires that can occur in October and April. But the reason Santa Ana wind events generally occur from October to March is that they cause more fires in the Southern California region than in other parts of California. Why do Santa Anas seem to fuel the fires, and why do they occur so often in so many areas, from rural to urban? Because they tend to hit more developed areas along the coast, causing more economic damage.
The state experienced a record number of Santa Ana wind events in the Southern California region from October through March.
The Santa Ana winds did not stop, but the air dried out down the mountain slopes so strongly that Santa Ana winds blew over the highlands from east to west. By mid-March, Santa Ana winds had stopped in the Southern California region, with the exception of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.
One thing is always certain in California: The Santa Ana winds, commonly known as the Santa Ana winds, can cause wildfires. The masses of cool air come from northern California, known for its Diablo winds.
Although the term "Santa Ana winds" is generally used only in Southern California, the devastating Oakland Hills fire in 1991 occurred in the San Fernando Valley, fueled by intense dry winds from the interior to the west. The combination of wind, heat and drought that accompanies the Santa Ana wind can transform the Chaparral into a hot, dry landscape, fueling the infamous wildfires for which the region is known. While some of Southern California's worst wildfires have been linked to seasonal gusts, the winds have also sparked fires, such as the San Diego County wildfires in May 2014. Indeed, according to a recent study by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), Santa Ana winds caused more than 70% of all fires in California in 2010 and 2012.
The flames are expected to continue to grow rapidly as Santa Ana winds bring gusty winds to Southern California, as the region is exposed to dry conditions that allow the fires to spread quickly, Anaheim Fire Daron Wyatt said. While the fire is burning west of Anaheim, it is already burning faster than the first Canyon Fire, which burned in less than an hour in the San Bernardino National Forest in July 2014, while the second Canyon Fire, a blaze that lasted a week, burned within hours.
The National Weather Service defines Santa Ana winds as strong slope winds that blow from the mountains through Southern California. The climatology of this extreme behavior spans six - and - a half - decades, and is the result of cool, humid air being sucked out of the ocean and moving north through the low-lying coastal plains of Southern California and the San Gabriel Mountains. A "Santa Ana wind" is a strong, extremely dry, sloping wind that originates inland and affects parts of the southern and central coast of California from Los Angeles to Orange County, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Santa Ana winds spanned from 1999 to 2012, and we are trying to determine the impact of this relationship between wildfires. Here, we examine the impact of the Santa Ana winds on wildfires in Southern California over the past six years. A high-resolution, size-resolved particle image of a large-scale model of wildfire damage in the Los Angeles - Orange County area.
We have noted that fires outside Santa Ana have played a major role in the severity of the Southern California wildfires over the past six years, and we are confident that these types of fires will change more in the future. They will become more frequent, intense and destructive than the more typical wildfires of recent years.
