As Fires Rage, Southland Braces For Santa Ana Wind Event
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The National Weather Service is issuing a fire weather watch in L.A. and Orange Counties that goes into effect Sunday afternoon and will run through Monday evening.
Forecasters say a new Santa Ana wind event is likely to develop late Sunday and produce winds of 20 to 35 miles per hour generating gusts of between 40 and 50 mph in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, with isolated 60-mph gusts possible in the San Gabriel county mountains.
The NWS warns that those strong winds, combined with extremely dry vegetation, might create extreme fire danger and fire behavior.
The worst of the winds will strike late Sunday night and into Monday morning.
The fire weather watch will be in effect for the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, the Angeles National Forest, the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, the L.A. County coast, and metropolitan Los Angeles, including Downtown L.A.
As the fire danger mounts, Southern California Edison said Saturday afternoon that it was "considering" power outages in Santa Clarita, Universal City, Malibu, and Palmdale.
Orange County is under a more serious red flag warning, with possible winds of 15-25 mph and gusts of 35-50 mph, including peak gusts as high as 70 mph. Power outages in Irvine, Lake Forest, and Orange are also being considered, according to Southern California Edison.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
