SoCal Braces for Devastating Santa Ana Winds

A potent blast of Santa Ana winds is expected to hit Southern California early this week, bringing powerful gusts that will challenge fire crews battling two destructive blazes and likely force thousands more residents to evacuate. The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings through Wednesday evening, indicating critical fire-weather conditions across a large swath of the region.

After a brief respite from the winds over the weekend, a shifting pressure gradient is set to send bone-dry gusts of up to 70 miles per hour through foothill communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties from late Sunday evening into Monday. Gusts approaching 50 mph may whip along the coast and at lower elevations.

The winds are set to ease during the afternoon hours before picking up again late Monday into Tuesday, repeating the pattern across the region through at least midweek. Authorities are concerned about fire conditions in portions of Riverside, Orange, and San Diego counties.

The high winds will limit opportunities for firefighters to make progress against the fast-moving Palisades and Eaton fires, which have left at least 24 people dead and consumed more than 12,000 buildings in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

By Monday, more than 7.7 million people will face critical fire-weather conditions, according to the U.S. Storm Prediction Center. The gusts are linked to a stagnant pattern of high pressure and low pressure across the West, creating a natural funnel over Southern California.

"It is a disastrous pattern, and there is not much chance of it changing," said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. “If anything, it just looks like it reloads across the West, and it looks like it gets worse by the end of the month.”

On Sunday, President Joe Biden received a briefing on the federal response to the fires from relevant agencies, the White House said. Approximately 105,000 residents in the Los Angeles area were still under evacuation orders as of Sunday morning, with another 87,000 on warning to leave.

California's Office of Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward said Sunday that engines, fire crews, helicopters, bulldozers, and water tenders were prepositioned across all of Southern California. "We're not out of the woods yet," Ward said. “We have some very significant fire weather ahead of us."