Damaging & dangerous winds Tuesday, tracking critical fire weather conditions
Our next extreme Santa Ana wind event cranks up Tuesday, while this event is not as historic as last week, it will still be damaging and more focused on Ventura County. Peak winds through Ventura occur from 4am Tuesday through noon Wednesday with gusts nearing 60mph near the coastline and 70mph in high elevation areas. San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara can expect gusts near 20-30mph by the beaches and 50mph in higher elevations. The main hazards for the day will be rapid fire growth, dangerous driving and marine conditions along with power outages and downed trees. These are imperative times to have a go bag packed and ready to go. Its important to keep an eye on your surroundings and have multiple ways to receive evacuation warnings and orders. Develop a wildfire action plan. These winds are "as extreme as it gets" per National Weather Service meteorologists. While winds and fire weather are the headlines through Wednesday, another important note is overnight lows. When the air is warm and dry, along with dying overnight winds, temperatures can free fall. A Freeze Warning and frost Advisory are inn effect until 9am for portions of the Central Coast and will likely go into effect again Tuesday and Wednesday night. Some areas could drop into the lower 20s, protect pets, plants and pipes. Marine hazards are heightened and gale force winds could impact boaters.
Expect a cold morning with frost and freeze alerts through 9am. Once the sun rises, winds pick back up. This will be the last day of damaging winds as our upper level system breaks down into Thursday. Expect downed trees and power lines along with extreme fire weather. It is still imperative to have a go bag packed and ready. If a fire sparks up it could explode and could lead to destruction. By the evening, winds die down and impacts will lessen. As we push toward Thursday, our winds transition back to onshore flow. This will be great news for fire containment efforts through Los Angeles. Humidity values begin to return as we near the weekend.
Rain chances have diminished completely and next week appears to have our next round of Santa Ana's. Impacts will be mild to moderate and this next event will pale in comparison to the recent events. With dry fire fuels and no rain in the forecast, even mild wind events are more dangerous. Temperatures will cool into the extended forecast and highs climb into the upper 60s with mostly sunny skies by the evening.
