Santa Anas Expected to Return on Sunday

Remember last week, when the Santa Ana winds stirred up enough sand and dust to clog a lot of folks’ nasal passages and make walking close to miserable? They’re coming back this weekend, most likely on Sunday, and staying through Monday.

“It’s going to be a dry, warm, gusty weekend in Orange County,” said Ken German, a meteorologist for WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

The high today should be in the low 80s most places in the county, but will climb to the upper 80s and could reach 90 by Sunday afternoon. The winds will blow in a northeasterly direction.

Winds could gust to 25 m.p.h. or more, especially closer to the hills, German said. That’s generally comparable to last week’s Santa Anas, though one report showed the wind reaching 50 m.p.h. in several places, he said.

Today’s hottest weather is expected to be in the El Toro area, where the high is expected to reach 84. Newport Beach is expected to reach no more than 72 today. German said the winds will also push out the low cloud layer.

Santa Ana winds fueled major fires in Glendale and Santa Barbara during the summer. The Orange County Fire Department sent an assessment team to both of those cities, and county fire spokesman Capt. Dan Young said the team made some interesting discoveries.

“Homes that nobody thought would ever burn ended up in trouble, even some with non-combustible roofs,” Young said.

The reason: Some homeowners had not done a good job of creating what the fire department calls “defensible space” on their land.

That means keeping lids on garbage cans, clearing roofs of dry leaves, keeping tree branches from leaning onto the house or its roof, and making sure that any utility wires are clear of branches or debris.

Young explained that in some of the Glendale and Santa Barbara fires, flames were able to spread because they reached combustible items in open trash containers and then spread to the underside of roofs.

“Even a non-combustible roof, such as tile, has an underlining that is combustible,” Young said.