Gusting Winds Up to 68 Mph Sweep Into Northern Valleys

Santa Ana winds whipped Christmas shoppers around parking lots in the San Fernando Valley on Monday and blasted debris through other parts of Los Angeles County.

Gusts of up to 68 mph blew through the area’s mountains, and sustained winds up to 35 mph haunted the valleys and canyons all day. More of the same was expected today, as the National Weather Service set wind advisories for mountains, valleys and canyons.

On Monday, Melissa Denney of Chatsworth chased a plastic shopping bag of holiday cards in the parking lot of Northridge Fashion Center.

“It’s like the wind just took it from me,” she said, bracing herself against a gust.

The winds were localized in the northern reaches of the county--Northridge, Chatsworth, Santa Clarita and the San Gabriel Valley, said National Weather Service meteorologist David Sweet.

“The conditions [Monday] just favored the northern valleys,” he said. “I could do a whole semester seminar on why, but just take it that it’s like that sometimes.”

The strongest gust, at 68 mph, was recorded near Castaic Lake.

Emergency agencies reported no major property damage or injuries as a result of the wind.

But an early morning gust blew part of a corrugated metal roof from a mobile home in Chatsworth and high winds hampered firefighters battling a small brush fire off the Antelope Valley Freeway in Santa Clarita.

The blaze was extinguished shortly after it started Monday morning.

Local airports kept regular flight schedules with planes taking off northward in the face of the Santa Anas.

“We’ve experienced wind like this before,” said Van Nuys Airport spokeswoman Stacy Geere. “We can continue as usual in this kind of wind.”

The wind blasts frustrated area residents in other ways. Carla Escobedo of Reseda sneezed and hacked in the arid weather.

“If you have any kind of allergies, you can’t deal with this dry wind blowing on you again and again,” Escobedo said. “But it’s better than living where you have to worry about snow and freezing.”

Ventura County did not fare so well. Southern California Edison reported brief power outages in the eastern and northern areas, mostly in Thousand Oaks. A total of 22,800 businesses and residences lost power in rolling outages, and more than 400 were still without power by 4 p.m., authorities said.

The highest sustained winds, up to 50 mph, were reported in Bell Canyon and Simi Valley, according to the National Weather Service.