As you may have seen from CNN or other news medias, there are Hurricane Force Santa Ana Winds in Southern California today. Santa Anas are a type of föhn wind, the result of air pressure buildup in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. This air mass spills out of the Great Basin and is pulled by gravity into the surrounding lowlands. The air circulates clockwise around the high pressure area bringing winds from the east and northeast to Southern California (the reverse of the westerly winds characteristic of the latitude, thank you Wikipedia). You may hear Doug refer to these winds as Santana winds (after the great band and guitarist Santana, but you should be aware of the actual name).
These winds in addition to our California drought (3 inches of rain in 18 months) have created quite an eventful day. Power lines have been forced down and fires have taken over Malibu and the Santa Clarita Area of Los Angeles County. Both areas about 25-30 miles from our home. This is good for us in regard to not being fearful of the actual fires spreading, but bad as we are west of both areas and are being literally smoked out. Here are some photos we just took outside our home.
(Note these photos are taken at 2:00 pm. and unlike the east coast and Texas, these aren't clouds but only smoke. Our normally clear blue skies have been replaced with the following views. The air quality is also awful, we are staying indoors today. But even doing that Doug and I are both suffering from slight headaches and nausea. )
We will keep you posted.................
Update: There are now 12 fires in Southern California, while none of this is funny, the quote of the evening is from Perez Hilton who stated, "We hope Britney didn't start it".
3 comments:
Come home --- we only have hurricanes and small tornados.
it looks like the end of the world . . .
Figures...my chance to come to Cali and I am going right into the fires!
Stay safe...
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