Thousands without power as Santa Ana winds bring increased fire risk for Southern California
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Power to tens of thousands of people had been shut off by Monday night as utilities worked to mitigate the impacts of Southern California’s notorious Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts could damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for high fire risk with a rare “particularly dangerous situation,” or PDS, designation starting at 8 p.m. Monday into Tuesday for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The last time PDS red flags went up was the first week of November, when powerful, dry winds fed the Mountain Fire, which destroyed at least 240 buildings, mostly homes, in Ventura County. Before that, a PDS red flag warning hadn’t been issued for the region since 2020.
“This event has the potential to be as strong as the November 5th-6th Santa Ana event that led to the Mountain Fire,” the weather service office for Los Angeles said Sunday on social media.
Nearly 42,000 customers lost power in San Diego County, with utilities saying more outages will likely be coming.
Southern California Edison had previously said it was considering targeted power shut-offs for more than 250,000 homes and businesses across seven counties starting Monday evening. Meanwhile San Diego Gas & Electric said it has notified nearly 117,500 customers that they might temporarily lose service to reduce the chance of wildfires.
Winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 97 kph) in and around mountain ranges in Southern California had been recorded by Monday night, with some gusts above 60 mph (97 kph) in the Santa Ana and San Gabriel mountains, according to the National Weather Service.
Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and offshore. They typically occur during the fall months and continue through winter and into early spring.
In Northern California, the weather service said chances were increasing for an “impactful rainfall event” late in the week for the San Francisco Bay Area.
