LOS ANGELES — Southern California is notorious Santa Ana wind They were forecast to return Monday evening and utility officials said they would be prepared to turn off the power to hundreds of thousands of customers in areas where strong wind gusts can damage electrical equipment and cause forest fires.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued a rare “particularly hazardous situation,” or PDS, red flag warning of high fire risk for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The last time the IBS red flags went out was the first week of November, when strong, dry winds struck Mountain firedestroying at least 240 buildings, mostly homes, in Ventura County. Previously, no IBS warning had been issued for the region since 2020.
“This event has the potential to be as strong as the Nov. 5-6 Santa Ana event that led to the Mountain Fire,” the Los Angeles weather bureau said on social media Sunday.
Southern California Edison said it was considering it targeted power cuts for more than 250,000 homes and businesses in seven provinces from Monday evening. Meanwhile, San Diego Gas & Electric said it has notified nearly 117,500 customers that they may temporarily lose service to reduce the risk of wildfires.
Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeasterly winds that blow from inland Southern California toward the coast and offshore. They usually occur during the fall months and continue through the winter and into early spring.
In Northern California, the weather service said the chances of “impactful rainfall” late in the week were increasing for the San Francisco Bay Area.