Dangerous & destructive winds Monday, tracking extreme fire weather conditions
Winds accelerate in Ventura County by daybreak Monday, strongest gusts projected from noon until midday Tuesday. The National Weather Service has now deemed this next event as a Particularly Dangerous Situation, so expect widespread damage from winds and extreme fire weather concerns. Winds could easily match or exceed the January 7th windstorm. The difference with this event, the exceptionally low humidity values. Since these winds are so strong, it will allow humidity to drop into dangerous levels for the entire Ventura County community. While a PDS is not a tool to predict fires, it is a significant tool for showing how primed the environment is for extreme fire weather behavior. Winds will gust near 100mph in the mountains and near the coastline will range from 30-40mph sustained, gusts near 50-70mph. This event has another easterly component, meaning less of an impact in LA and more focused on Ventura. A Red Flag Warning is in effect starting noon until 10am Tuesday, A High Wind Warning begins at 8am Monday, and last through midday Tuesday. Gale force winds impact the waters, boats are advised to stay in the harbor.
Strong winds last through Tuesday midday. With this northeasterly push, expect minimal marine layer influence and warming temperatures. Downed trees, power lines and objects in the road are likely and could impact your morning commute. Most Red Flag Warning and Wind Alerts will be allowed to expire into the evening as this wind event comes to an end. We hold with light northeasterly push until the weekend.
We are not out of the clear with fire weather concerns Wednesday. A Fire Weather Watch is in effect for Ventura county as humidity values fail to rise up to substancial numbers. As we near closer to the weekend, the next weather pattern shift begins. Most data is showing our first chance for rain! While this could bring us out of the fire weather pattern, it could also be devastating with recent burn scars. This will be a dicey situation as too much rain could cause catastrophic damage and flooding concerns, but just enough will be tremendous to put an end to fire weather concerns.