The first Santa Anas of the season caused power outages for thousands in southern California on Wednesday as utilities, firefighters and health officials braced for impacts from strong winds and unsafely warm temperatures.
More than 2,000 California Edison customers lost power as part of a public safety outage, utility officials said, and another 22,373 customers are being monitored.
Outages affected customers in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Rivernardide Counties as the Santa Ana Day event pushed temperatures into the 90s, with wind gusts of 50 mph in some areas.
“We want to prevent anything that steals air from hitting a power line and causing a spark,” SCE spokesman Jeff Monford said in a statement.
Usage means that power will be restored to customers by midnight. California’s three largest utilities have adopted a ten-year strategy to cut power to customers in wind-prone areas where the weather creates a risk of high-speed traffic so their equipment doesn’t create dangerous pollution so their equipment doesn’t create dangerous pollution.
SCE is currently being investigated for its equipment that may have started the Eaton fire that killed 19 people in January.
On Wednesday, wind gusts were around 50 mph in many areas, including the San Gabriel Mountains and Santa Susana Mountains in Ventura County, according to the National Weather Service. Even the Santa Clarita Valley saw gusts as high as 40 mph.
Temperatures were expected to reach 95 degrees across the Los Angeles Basin before kickoff, with temperatures expected to be in the low 90s in the valleys, upper 70s in Ryan Kitell.
The temperature is expected to continue to decrease on Friday, but it will still be warm, Kitell said.
A red flag warning and heat warning remained in effect for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties through Wednesday evening.
In the last few days, the winds have been drying the areas that were recently visited by the rain.
Northeast Santa Ana Wind gusts of up to 40 mph Wednesday were expected to push humidity levels down, possibly into the single digits.
“It all adds up to dealing with the risk of fire tomorrow,” Kitell said. “In general, the advice is for residents to be extra careful with anything that could start a fire.”
October usually marks the start of Southern California’s fire season as deep winds emerge from the east. But this October is marked by some wet conditions.
Earlier this month, a storm hit the Los Angeles River with scattered debris, flooding and high winds. Authorities hope the weather will help reduce long-term fire danger.
But it’s likely to be the last rain to last for a while, and any gains made from those storms could be offset by the week’s heat and wind, according to the weather service.
“At first we were hopeful, but our fire weather forecaster talked to the fuel experts with the Los Angeles County Fire and the Angeles Weather Forest,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Bryan Lewis. “Some of the oil received rain and got more moisture from it, but a good number didn’t. That’s why we’re issuing a red flag warning for Santa ana winds because the oil is still very dry.”
