Power Outages Tied to Fog’s Salt Content

The high salt content in heavy fog apparently caused several conductors to short-circuit early Tuesday, resulting in brief power outages in as many as 14,000 Orange County homes, according to Southern California Edison.

The outages, which occurred shortly after 12:30 a.m. and lasted about four minutes, affected portions of Santa Ana, Huntington Beach and Fullerton, said Cathy Sedlik, an Edison spokeswoman.

“The outage occurred because of very heavy, dense fog, which probably contained salt that may have been corrosive to the conductor,” Sedlik said, adding that customers did not lose electricity for long because power was rerouted from other substations.

Sedlik said maintenance workers routinely clean conductors to prevent heavy salt buildup. Outages caused by salt are unusual but not unheard of, she said.

Salt-filled fog is common in coastal areas, explained Dean Jones, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which tracks weather for The Times.

“Any time you have surfs that hit the shore, you’ll have sea sprays, which spray salt in the air,” Jones said. “That can then be transported inland by the fog.”