Late spring winds swept through Southern California over the weekend, sparking multiple brush fires and dashing the hopes of Redondo Beach music festivalgoers.
Monday and Tuesday are expected to bring stronger gusty winds to smaller parts of the region. That includes the Interstate 5 corridor near Grapevine and parts of Santa Barbara, where evening gusts of 40 mph to 50 mph are expected, according to the National Weather Service.
Forecasts show the Antelope Canyon is expected to experience wind gusts of up to 30 or 40 mph around the same time.
The storm system is bringing cool temperatures and light rain to the region starting Saturday, along with gusty winds. While wind should not be underestimated, gusty winds are common in late spring.
“It was a pretty good wind event, but not what I would call a record breaking level,” said David Gomberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
In the 24 hours starting Saturday, wind gusts reached 68 mph at a weather station in the mountains east of Cajon Pass, 55 mph on Santa Barbara Island, and gusts in the Montecito Mountains north of Santa Barbara. reached 53 mph. According to the National Weather Service.
Gumberg said the high winds were accompanied by a weak storm front moving through the area.
The timing was unfortunate for fans of My Morning Jacket and Courtney Barnett, whose performance at the BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, along with the rest of the event’s third day, was canceled due to “severe wind events that threatened the public.” facing danger”. organizers said in a Facebook post. Fans can attend Friday and Saturday shows, which include performers from Sting and Incubus.
Organizers said in the post: “While we took extraordinary measures to keep fans, staff and artists safe, and there was absolutely no failure of our engineering structures or systems, wind speeds quickly reached very dangerous speeds and we Put safety first.
The wind does not discriminate in its destruction.
Strong winds blew down a four- to five-story scaffolding in the 1000 block of North St. Andrews Place in Hollywood on Sunday, knocking down a set of power lines, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The scaffolding was erected against a building but was blown away by high winds around 2 p.m., forcing emergency crews to divert traffic and pedestrians away from the area.
According to the fire department, no injuries were reported when firefighters arrived and no one was on the scaffolding during the incident.
Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighters also had to respond to a quarter-acre brush fire sparked by sustained winds near Highway 170 at Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood shortly before 3 p.m. LAFD said firefighters contained and extinguished the fire within 25 minutes.
About 30 minutes later, firefighters were called to a report of a brush fire in Sepulveda Basin in the 6100 block of North Woodley Avenue. Dry vegetation burned near the archery range, forcing employees and customers to temporarily leave the area; firefighters extinguished the fire in about 70 minutes, LAFD said in a news alert. Wind gusts of 20 mph to 30 mph fueled the fire, according to the fire department.
Starting Wednesday, Southern California will experience a light offshore spell that will bring northerly and northeasterly winds to Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Gumberg said the winds will bring “very light weather.” Those winds will be accompanied by falling humidity and rising temperatures, but vegetation in the area won’t be much of a fire hazard due to recent rains, he said.
Southern Californians aren’t the only ones facing headwinds. The National Weather Service in Sacramento is warning drivers to expect gusty winds starting Tuesday from north of Vacaville to Redding. Wind gusts of up to 40 mph are likely.
Gomberg said that no matter where drivers are headed during high wind conditions, they should be aware of fallen branches, downed power lines and other wind-blown hazards in their surroundings.
