What are the Santa Ana winds that are fueling devastating fires across Southern California?

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What are the Santa Ana winds that are fueling devastating fires across Southern California?
Author: Rhian Lubin
Published: Jan, 08 2025 14:34

The National Weather Service has issued an extreme weather warning of a life-threatening and destructive windstorm. The fast-moving wildfires ripping through Southern California are being fueled by the state’s fierce Santa Ana winds. The Los Angeles Fire Department is bracing itself for the bruising winds to reach gusts of up to 60 mph through Thursday. In some parts, the Santa Anas could reach speeds of up to 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

 [Wind pushes embers into a home as the Eaton Fire moves through the area on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California]
Image Credit: The Independent [Wind pushes embers into a home as the Eaton Fire moves through the area on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California]

Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate LA and more than 300,000 people have been left without power after several fires ignited across the county on Tuesday evening. The Pacific Palisades fire has spread to almost 5,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, while the Eaton fire has spread over 1,000 acres through Altadena, Pasadena, Arcadia, and Sierra Madre. The Hurst fire in Sylmar at 500 acres.

 [Apocalyptic pictures from the wildfire engulfing a home in the Pacific Palisades]
Image Credit: The Independent [Apocalyptic pictures from the wildfire engulfing a home in the Pacific Palisades]

“By no stretch of the imagination are we out of the woods,” Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. “I saw firsthand the impact of these swirling winds and the embers and the number of structures that are destroyed. Not a few, many structures already destroyed.”.

 [The Palisades Fire burns a residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.]
Image Credit: The Independent [The Palisades Fire burns a residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.]

With the ability to turn a small spark into a raging wildfire, the Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from Nevada and Utah to Southern California toward the coast. They move in the opposite direction of the normal onshore flow that carries moist air from the Pacific into the region.

 [A firefighter battles a hotspot caused by the Woosley Fire in Malibu, California, 10 November 2018]
Image Credit: The Independent [A firefighter battles a hotspot caused by the Woosley Fire in Malibu, California, 10 November 2018]

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