Ill Winds Blow Nobody Good Except Surfers

Blustery winds from a passing weather front contributed to traffic jams in south Orange County, knocked out power to nearly 1,000 Fullerton residents and kicked up surf along the county coastline Thursday.

Elsewhere in Southern California, gusts of up to 70 m.p.h. fanned the flames of brush fires and obscured visibility on roadways, causing one fatality in Riverside County.

In Orange County, the winds were milder than in some areas, but gusts of more than 30 m.p.h. continued throughout Thanksgiving Day, playing havoc with motorists driving to and from holiday celebrations, according to the California Highway Patrol.

“We’ve had a wind advisory for the Camp Pendleton area on the San Diego Freeway, and because there’s a lot of holiday traffic, it’s like a normal workday with the winds adding to the driving problem,” said a CHP dispatcher in Santa Ana.

No major accidents were reported, but unusually heavy traffic did cause numerous slowdowns and minor traffic accidents on the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways. By early afternoon, traffic had ground nearly to a halt heading south out of the county, with cars backed up for miles.

In Fullerton, the high winds blew tree limbs into a 4,000-volt power line. The toppling line caused a voltage regulator to explode at a nearby Southern California Edison substation, temporarily cutting power to 975 customers.

According to Edison spokesman Bob Goodlow, the outage, which occurred about 8:50 a.m., was limited to an area near the 100 block of Ash Street in Fullerton.

Service was restored within 25 minutes, but Fullerton police officers had to direct traffic at two intersections because computerized signal lights needed to be reprogrammed before they could be returned to service. No injuries were reported.

The brisk winds were caused by a storm front that had moved overhead close to Orange County, said Stephanie Hunter, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“The front caused winds to be more erratic, especially in the morning hours because of the marine influence,” Hunter said.

The winds will continue to be “strong and gusty” today, said Steve Burback of WeatherData. Coming out of the north and northeast, the winds will reach speeds of 15 to 30 m.p.h., with possibly higher gusts.

High temperatures will range from the mid-60s along the coast to the mid-70s inland, Burback said. Tonight, the mercury will dip into the upper 40s along the coast and upper 30s inland.

“The skies will be basically clear through Saturday,” Burback said.

The warmest spot in Orange County on Thanksgiving Day was Santa Ana, at 71 degrees.

In Huntington Beach, lifeguards reported that erratic winds fanned the surf with offshore breezes. That made for good surfing conditions for those willing to brave the cool water and air temperatures.

Along the shore in Huntington Beach, lifeguards reported waves of 3 to 4 feet, and surfers endured 61-degree water temperatures to take advantage of them.

“It’s been weird. For a while we had a west wind, from 6 to 8 a.m., and then it calmed,” said Huntington Beach lifeguard Claude Panis. “Then it started blowing really hard directly from the north, then the northeast, then out of the east. But the good news is that it’s feathering the waves back, making for good surfing conditions.”

Despite the good news for surfers, gusting breezes bedeviled the rest of the region. The Los Angeles County Fire Department issued a “red flag alert,” warning that the high winds, warm temperatures and low humidity were combining to turn the Southland into a tinder box.

And the National Weather Service office at UC Riverside issued a bulletin for “very high to extreme fire danger ratings on most of the national forests, state and county parks and other wildland areas.”

A motorist was killed and two other people suffered moderate injuries in a car collision during a sandstorm in Romoland, southeast of Perris in Riverside County, the CHP reported. The car, which had stopped when winds fanned a blinding dust storm, was then struck by other vehicles, CHP officials said. There was no immediate identification of the victims.

A brush fire broke out near the Rose Bowl on Thursday morning and briefly threatened expensive homes in the Pasadena, Glendale and the La Canada Flintridge area.

Firefighters battled the winds before controlling the 10-acre blaze. The fire raced up brush-covered hillsides west of the Rose Bowl and drew near some million-dollar, ridge-top homes, but did not damage any buildings.

About 100 residents in the La Canada Flintridge area were evacuated but later returned to their homes, according to Brian Jordan, a fire inspector for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

A fire in a Thousand Oaks canyon burned 35 acres of brush and threatened a dozen hillside homes before firefighters were able to get it under control Thursday evening, authorities said.

Buffeted by 15-m.p.h. winds, the blaze raged within 30 yards of one house, said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman John Foy.

A hundred firefighters and 15 engines fought the three-alarm fire.

In Baker, a rest stop on busy Interstate 15, the blustery wind temporarily dashed residents’ dreams that their town, population 40, would become internationally known as “Thermometer City.” Gusts as high as 70 m.p.h. toppled a newly built, $750,000, 134-foot-high thermometer that was to have been dedicated to Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, inventor of the thermometer.

Times staff writers Anne C. Roark, Victor Merina, Jeffrey A. Perlman and Charles Hillinger contributed to this report.