Trouble Blows In on 100-M.P.H. Santa Anas

Chill, dry Santa Ana winds howled down Southern California’s mountain passes and canyons at up to 100 m.p.h. Monday, toppling trucks, shredding Christmas decorations and kicking up dust storms that triggered traffic accidents and forced the temporary closure of three freeways.

In addition, power was knocked out to thousands of residential and business customers in widely scattered areas, and arcing power lines, downed by the hurricane-force gusts, ignited several small brush fires.

The flames were quickly extinguished, but officials said the winds, generated by a vast complex of weather systems over the Rockies, were parching the already dry Los Angeles Basin, increasing the danger of additional fires.

While most of the wind damage was confined to San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties Monday morning, forecasters said the Santa Anas should begin moving into the Los Angeles area before dawn today.

National Weather Service meteorologists said there will be 45-m.p.h. winds early this morning in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, with gusts up to 60 m.p.h. below some canyons.

On the other hand, meteorologists from WeatherData Inc., a private firm that provides forecasts for The Times, said this morning’s winds will be less than that--significantly weaker than Monday’s.

The strongest winds reported Monday were gusts of 100 m.p.h. near Grapevine in southern Kern County, 85 m.p.h near Devore at the base of the Cajon Pass and 80 m.p.h. on the hilltops above Point Mugu in Ventura County.

As is often the case with Santa Anas, communities below the Cajon Pass in the San Bernardino area were among the hardest hit Monday, with portions of three freeways there closed by opaque clouds of wind-whipped dust and sand.

“The traffic is heavy; the visibility is poor and down to zero in some stretches,” California Highway Patrol Officer Marty Bell reported Monday morning from San Bernardino. “It’s best to just stay out of the area all together if possible.”

By noon, at least four big rigs, a number of travel trailers and several motorcycles had been tipped over by the heavy winds, most of them on California 60 and Interstate 15, east of Ontario.

No serious injuries were reported, but one unidentified driver was scraped and bruised when the winds toppled his truck.

A CHP officer said the back window of his patrol car was blown out by a strong gust. Several motorists took refuge on the lee side of embankments and overpasses to wait out the fiercest of the winds.

“It was blowing like mad,” said John Anderson, a CHP spokesman in Riverside. “And the dust. Whew! What a mess. A lot of people were just waiting out the storm.”

Anderson said one travel trailer was ripped from the pickup truck towing it and tossed over the guardrail of an overpass above California 60, east of Ontario. He said the driver “probably got to Indio, looked in his rear-view mirror and then wondered where that son of a gun was.”

California 60 was closed to all traffic between Milliken and Etiwanda avenues because of the winds and dust clouds in the Ontario area. Interstate 15 was closed from Baseline Road north to the community of Devore.

A section of Interstate 10 near Ontario International Airport also was closed for a time, but the airport was able to maintain normal flight operations.

Windblown trash, leaves and small branches torn from trees exacerbated driving problems. In some areas, paint and windshields on cars and trucks were scratched and pitted by wind-driven pebbles and sand.

Traffic was rerouted around the closed freeways onto surface streets. But it was slow going throughout the morning, and, police said, the poor visibility led to numerous minor fender-benders that compounded the driving problems.

At least 20 trees were uprooted in San Bernardino, and windows were shattered in several buildings, including City Hall.

Outdoor Christmas decorations took a beating, especially in western San Bernardino County, and trees blew over at Christmas tree lots throughout the Southland.

The gusts churned up waves during some unusually high tides along the coast. Several stretches of Pacific Coast Highway in Orange County were sporadically awash with seawater Monday morning. Forecasters said similar conditions could recur today.

Power lines were downed across a broad swath of the Southland, knocking out service to at least 16,000 homes and businesses in Orange County and causing scattered outages in other areas.

Southern California Edison Co. crews were kept busy restoring electrical service during the morning. Edison spokesman Steve Nelson said most of the outages were momentary, although some areas were without power for considerably longer periods.

Downed lines started several small brush fires that were quickly brought under control in the Glen Avon area of Riverside County.

But fire experts said the low humidity brought by the arid Santa Ana winds was drying out the already parched chaparral in the foothills and threatening to whip any blazes that started into major firestorms.

“That brush starts to die (after the seasonal rains end) in June, and it doesn’t start growing again until January,” said Gordon Rowley, a U.S. Forest Service fire suppression officer based in Arcadia. “By now, with these winds, things are extremely dry, with extremely high fire danger.”

Rowley said that while its seems to many that there have been more Santa Ana winds than usual since Nov. 1, his records show that the area averages 15 to 20 days of Santa Anas in November and December, and this year is nothing out of the ordinary.

“Historically, we’ve had a lot of heavy winds at this time of year and some major fires too,” Rowley said. “The potential is there again this year.”

Monday’s Santa Anas prompted a red flag fire-hazard alert in Orange County, and fire officials throughout Southern California urged special caution.

Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData, said the strong winds resulted from the interaction of two major weather systems over the Rockies.

The first, a cold and vigorous high-level storm system, pulled a strong and arid high-pressure system in behind it, he said, generating a chilly stream of dry, downslope winds that rapidly invaded Southern California.

Temperatures and humidity here dropped as the winds rattled into the Southland.

Thermometer readings in the chilly mid-40s were common Monday morning, with a low at the Los Angeles Civic Center of 47 degrees. The humidity in downtown Los Angeles dropped from a high of 86% to a low of just 16%.

National Weather Service meteorologists said they expect the high-pressure system to stay in place long enough for a resumption of strong winds before dawn that will not ease until sometime this afternoon.

WeatherData meteorologists said they expect the high pressure to begin moving east a little sooner, with lesser winds, diminishing earlier.

Forecasters agreed that today’s high temperatures should be mostly in the 70s.

Warren reported from the Riverside-San Bernardino area; Malnic reported from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Carol McGraw in Los Angeles and Chris Woodyard in Orange County contributed to this story.