Santa Ana winds bring red flag warning to parts of LA County

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Another round of potentially damaging Santa Ana winds will batter much of the region starting Monday and lingering into mid-week, and will combine with low humidity to create dangerous wildfire conditions.

The conditions are expected to peak late Monday night into Tuesday afternoon. In anticipation, the National Weather Service has issued another rare “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning” from 10 p.m. Monday to 2 p.m. Tuesday for the San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Clarita Valley, Western San Fernando Valley, Calabasas, the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway corridor and the Malibu coast.

Those areas will remain under a standard red flag warning until 6 p.m. Wednesday, along with the eastern San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and the Golden State (5) Freeway corridor.

In order to reduce traffic through a high-danger area, CalTrans and the California Highway Patrol closed Topanga Canyon Boulevard between Mulholland Drive and Pacific Coast Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains at noon Monday, continuing until 6 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities say only residents and local business traffic will be allowed into the canyon.

Forecasters said the peak of the period covered by the warning could see winds of 25 to 40 mph, gusting to 65 mph in typically wind-prone areas.

“Some of the windier foothills and mountains will likely see wind speeds of 30 to 50 mph with damaging wind gusts in the 60 to 80 mph range during the peak of the event (Monday night) into Tuesday,” according to the NWS. “Some of the highest wind areas will likely be the San Gabriels, Santa Susanas, western Santa Monicas into Malibu, Ventura county valleys (especially Simi Valley and Moorpark), and western San Fernando Valley (especially Highway 118/210 corridors from Porter Ranch to San Fernando).”

Humidity levels, meanwhile, could fall to as low as 5% in some areas, “with isolated readings as low as 2% likely,” forecasters said.

As is typical during red flag conditions, Southern California Edison advised thousands of customers that they could be subject to power cuts designed to prevent electrical equipment from sparking wildfires during threatening winds.

As of Monday morning, no SCE customers were subjected to the “Public Safety Power Shutoffs,” but more than 250,000 across the utility's vast coverage area were under consideration for cutoffs. That figure includes more than 43,000 customers in Los Angeles County and 10,500 in Orange County.