Strong Winds, Peaking Today, Stir Up Trouble

The Santa Ana winds that have been blowing leaves, people, power lines and debris are expected to peak today with gusts of up to 75 mph in parts of Orange County.

The winds, which reached 64 mph on Tuesday, prompted Orange County Fire Authority officials to put more firefighters on standby and add more engines to their normal response team, agency spokesman Capt. Scott Brown said.

“Even though the fire season is closed, it doesn’t mean that we won’t gear up, especially with the wind as strong as it is,” Brown said. “There’s been a significant amount of rainfall lately, which lessens the danger. But we still have the wind, and it could create some problems for us, especially if there’s a fire involving wood-shake roofs.”

The Santa Anas are expected to reach their strongest today and begin subsiding tonight, said Curtis Brack, meteorologist for WeatherData, which provides weather information for The Times.

“These winds are associated with an air mass drifting toward the Southland from the desert and bringing fairly cool air with it,” Brack said. “It looks like it’ll stay nice and dry, breezy and cool for the next few days.”

At John Wayne Airport, meteorologists measured winds of about 20 mph Tuesday afternoon, while in Fremont Canyon north of Irvine Lake, gusts of 64 mph were recorded.

Millie Paul, spokeswoman for Southern California Edison Co., said that power outages affecting up to 3,500 customers in Santa Ana and Garden Grove were caused by “winds blowing down the power lines.”

The winds are expected to reach 50 mph with gusts of up to 75 mph today and then calm down Thursday, with temperatures in the 60s near the coast and in the high 40s and low 50s in the mountains, Brack said.

“It’ll be mostly sunny, with some high clouds now and then,” he said.