DEFINITION OF SANTA ANA WINDS

Warm, dry winds that blow out of the

mountains and desert toward the west or southwest into

southern California. They come off the elevated desert

plateau of the southwest United States and funnel through

the San Bernadino and San Gabriel Mountains, spreading out

over Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Barbara,

and San Francisco. Similar winds known as the California

“northers” can affect northern California. Santa Ana winds

develop when high-pressure systems build over the great

basin of Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Clockwise

rotation around the high-pressure system forces air

downslope into California, and the dry air is compressed,

and heated and dried further by compressional heating. Santa

Ana winds can be quite dangerous, since they may blow at

more than 100 miles per hour (161 km/hr), and they often

occur in the autumn or winter, when the brush is extremely

dry and prone to flash fires. Some disastrous fires fueled by

dry brush and agitated by Santa Ana winds have devastated

California communities, causing billions of dollars in losses,

including the fires in Bel Air in 1961, and numerous fires in

Oakland, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara in 1991 and 1993.

See also CHINOOK WINDS.

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