Santa Ana winds will be building overnight, making for dangerous fire conditions on Wednesday lasting through at least Thursday afternoon.
Here’s a look at some of the peak wind gusts from last night:
Sill Hill: 56 mph
Buckman Springs: 60 mph
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Boulder Creek: 56 mph
Descanso: 53 mph
Poway: 34 mph
Weather
Carlsbad: 29 mph
Here's the timing for wind and fire danger over the next few days:
WEDNESDAY: Windiest day. Winds peaking in the morning, isolated gusts 60mph+. Late morning, and early afternoon, winds spread to the west, gusting 20 to 40mph at the coast. Fire danger is critical from late morning through mid-afternoon.
THURSDAY: Driest day. A brief increase in winds over the mountains. Other than that, winds are decreasing, but very dry, with relative humidity below 10%.
FRIDAY: Less windy, still dry, fire danger slightly elevated for far eastern parts of the county.
A HIGH WIND WARNING is now in effect and includes the mountains, valleys, and coast. The RED FLAG WARNING is now in effect through 6 pm Thursday for the valleys and mountains.
What makes this particular Santa Ana dangerous is the lack of recent rain. This is the driest start to a winter for San Diego with the driest October 1st-January 8th and July 1st through January 8th periods on records, which date back to 1850. It has been nearly a month since we've had rain. Fuel moisture is very low. So, even a small fire can grow very quickly.
WEDNESDAY
- Coast: Wind warning - highs in the upper 60s to low 70s
- Valleys: Red Flag Warning - mid-60s low 70s
- Mountains: Red Flag Warning, cold - upper 40s to low 50s
- Desert: Breezy - upper 60s
