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Another Santa Ana wind burst to hit LA firegrounds

A renewed surge of Santa Ana winds will create dangerous fire weather in southern California over the next few days, prompting Red Flag Warnings in areas where uncontained fires continue to burn around LA.

As of Sunday evening local time, several large fires were burning around LA:

• The Palisades fire has burnt more than 23,700 acres over the past five days and remains mostly uncontrolled (11% contained).
• The Eaton fire has scorched an area spanning more than 14,000 acres and is only 27% contained.
• The Hurst fire is about 800 acres in size and nearly 90% contained.

Video: Smoke billowing offshore from the fires near LA on Thursday, January 9. Source: CIRA

Authorities working to contain these fires will face another dangerous spike in fire weather over the next few days as another surge of strong Santa Ana winds sweeps across LA and surrounding areas.

The Santa Ana winds refer to seasonal northeasterly winds that periodically blow dry air through coastal areas of Southern California. They develop when air descending from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range becomes warmer and drier as it flows down towards the coast, being enhanced further by the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains.

This week’s Santa Ana winds will be weaker than the event that occurred last week. However, it should still be strong enough to cause wind gusts reaching about 60 to 70 mph (97 to 113 km/h) in some areas over the coming days.

The dry Santa Ana winds are expected to strengthen on Monday and persist at dangerous strength until Wednesday. This impending period of reinvigorated Santa Ana winds has prompted Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Red Flag Warnings around the LA region and the surrounding mountains.

Image: Red Flag Warning issued by the NWS. Valid at 1:30pm PST on January 12, 2025. Source: NOAA/NWS

One other important aspect of this week’s wind event is that the wind direction will be more easterly than last week’s surge. This could make some areas experience winds that were stronger than last week, despite the overall wind strength of this event being weaker.

According to the National Weather Service, “much of Ventura County will likely have stronger winds than the offshore wind events this past week.”

Wind should ease and start to blow onshore on Thursday and Friday, allowing the weather to become less conducive to fires into the back end of this week. However, forecast models are suggesting that another period of strong and dry offshore winds could redevelop next week, causing more dangerous fire weather to return.

Visit https://www.fire.ca.gov/ for the latest information on the fires burning around LA and other areas of California.