The Santa Ana winds of Southern California can be visualized in several ways. You can see their effects as palm trees sway in the morning light or when clean-up crews arrive to deal with branches and debris on streets. Woe unto any Angeleno who doesn't keep their car indoors - as objects large and small end up on vehicles, with alarms going off wildly in the night.
Santa Ana winds bring distinct weather to Southern California. Observing weather data, clues of past wind events are immediately clear. Santa Ana winds occur when winds blow and pick up speed as they travel from the inland deserts toward the coast. These wind events usually kick off in the fall and winter months in the Los Angeles area, coinciding with Southern California's notorious fire season.
After a low pressure system passed through the Bay Area on Monday to bring precipitation to the Bay Area and cooler weather to Southern California, moderate northerly winds impacted Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Tuesday, raising temperatures in some areas and drying things out.
Today is forecast to be the warmest day of the week in Los Angeles, with high temperatures expected to be back in the upper 70s near Downtown Los Angeles. But while Angelenos might enjoy the warmer and drier weather during these wind events, all it takes is an unattended campfire or a cigarette to spark a massive wildfire in environments where land is already parched having not received any rain since the spring in some cases.
As the region braces for more inevitable rounds of Santa Anas during the fall and winter, here are a few facts, and also some myths, about them.
