Benefits of a Blown Forecast

Southern Californians had steeled themselves for gusty winds on Saturday, the same sort that spread last week’s devastating wildfires, including the one in Orange County’s Lemon Heights.

But what they got was weak-to-moderate breezes with a forecast for more of the same through today.

“It’s been pretty weak Santa Ana winds,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “It didn’t totally pan out the way it was looking.”

While winds in Northern California gusted to 45 mph and in parts of Los Angeles County reached 30 mph, Brack said, Orange County escaped the worst of it. Winds reached 30 mph only once, about 11 a.m. at El Toro. During the rest of the day, he said, the gusts averaged 15 to 20 mph.

In other parts of Southern California, the winds were strong enough to fell palm fronds and branches, prompting some concerns in communities vulnerable to wind-driven fires.

But the embers from last week’s major blazes--in Ventura County, Malibu and San Diego County--failed to flare anew, and although small fires erupted Saturday afternoon, they were quickly extinguished.

Firefighters in Orange County, who had been on alert for the weekend, expressed relief, reporting only a few minor blazes. None caused any injuries or major damage.

A small fire erupted about 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Aliso Viejo, blackening about 900 square feet of brush. Fire officials said its cause was under investigation. An hour later, embers from a fireplace in a Tustin apartment complex ignited its wood-shake roof, causing about $200 in damage.

And a faulty microwave oven sparked a kitchen and attic fire that damaged the roof of a house in Fountain Valley, badly frightening two dogs. Both pets were treated for minor smoke inhalation and released to their owners, according to a spokeswoman for the Fountain Valley Fire Department.

A brush fire in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles County forced closure of the Santa Ana Freeway for about 20 minutes before city firefighters, assisted by three water-dropping helicopters, extinguished the blaze. A mobile home was destroyed. Another fire blackened about half an acre of brush in the tiny town of Bradbury in the San Gabriel Valley.

Brack, the meteorologist, attributed the diminished winds to a shift in the position of the storm. Instead of drifting east over New Mexico as predicted, he said, the cold storm system from the Gulf of Alaska stalled near Yuma on the California-Arizona border. As a result, according to Brack, the high-pressure weather system following behind the storm, accompanied by strong winds, was blocked over Northern rather than Southern California.

“If there was a way to bust the forecast,” he said, “this was a good way to do it.”

The light-to-moderate Santa Ana winds should continue through today, Brack said, with occasional gusts of up to 30 mph. Partly cloudy skies are expected, with afternoon highs in the 60s and low 70s.

There is a chance of a few showers over the mountains, Brack said. By late tonight, he said, the winds should die down, with the storm moving on by Monday.