Southern California Edison has notified some of their customers that strong Santa Ana winds on Thursday and Friday could result in a preemptive power shutoff on Thanksgiving in order to reduce the chance of wildfires being ignited by power line failures caused by the winds.
The National Weather Service has issued Red Flag Warnings from Ventura County south to San Diego County as well as the Lower Colorado River Valley.
The Red Flag Warning goes into effect at 2 p.m. Thursday about the time many Southern Californians will be thinking about sitting down for Thanksgiving dinner. It will end at 6 p.m. Friday.
The forecasters expect 40 to 55 mph northeast winds in the lower elevations with isolated gusts to 65 mph in the mountains, with 12 to 25 percent relative humidity Thursday dropping to 8 to 15 percent Friday. The wind will decrease during the weekend but it will remain breezy and dry.
The Angeles National Forest will have extra firefighters on duty through this wind event.
Your #ANF firefighters will increase staffing through this fire weather event. Additional resources also moving into our area to boost local firefighting resources.
? EXTREME Fire Danger ⚠️ on the Angeles National Forest ? https://t.co/kEC4YuOk7x pic.twitter.com/4OaSHtmB9M
— Robert Garcia (@firechiefanf) November 26, 2020
Sad story here Bill, https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-11-16/sierra-nevada-giant-sequoias-killed-castle-fire
Well here we are in the final stretch of the 2020 Fire season in California. A few decent size snow storms have come through the four corners region in the last month, putting an end to the seemingly endless fire danger of the wicked dry summer of 2020.
Those same snow storms are responsible for the Santa Ana high wind event taking shape tomorrow.
Interesting to note that after the lightning siege of August in Central & Northern California, that set off a a historic record of a 5 million acre burn period in just two months time, things have been very quiet for October & November.
Anyone want to take a guess on what the next month is going to do in Ca? They should be ok I think, the sierras got dumped on and rain has fallen elsewhere.
All eyes on parched So Cal now. Fingers crossed for no unwanted stupid human ignitions
Happy Thanksgiving to Bill & all the great staff at Wildfire Today. I really appreciate what you do.
Stay safe every one, by masking up,
-JB