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Hello Los Angeles, and happy fall! While the rest of the country gets excited about an impending season of wearing long sleeves and an ubiquitous orange color palette, fall in L.A. means the arrival of the Santa Ana Winds. That's right, folks—the winds are coming!
While we had a little taste of the coming wind on Thursday night—about 3,000 customers lost electricity in L.A., and a large tree fell down in West Hollywood, according to KNBC—the season's first Santa Ana event is set to keep things hot, gusty and dry through early next week. It's going to be boiling over the weekend, so if you're planning on being outside be sure to do it early, and take along lots of water.
As for the winds, the National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for Southern California's mountain regions effective now through Sunday afternoon. Winds from the northeast in the mountains and foothills will sustain from about 15 to 30 mph, and will gust anywhere from 35 to 45 mph. The story is similar in the valleys, where a Red Flag Warning becomes effective Friday evening.
As for the heat, we're about to be graced with a firm ridge of high pressure that will elevate temperatures across Southern California into the 90s on Friday and Saturday. Communities across the L.A. basin will see temperatures in low 90s, those in the Valleys will be closer to 100. Then, on Sunday, it gets really hot. Downtown L.A.'s anticipated high on Sunday is 95 degrees, spiking again to 97 on Monday. While most of L.A. basin won't get hotter than 100, the valleys and Inland Empire can expect three days of 100+ degree heat.
Things will start cooling down by Thursday (September 29), but it will still be much warmer than average until next weekend, when we can finally expect temperatures in the 70s to return.
While the Santa Ana event isn't going to be a particularly strong one, according to KPCC, the combination of very low humidity and very high temperatures with the gusty conditions translates to extremely potent fire conditions. So, no opens flames in the forest, no fireworks in the mountains, etc.
