High Seas Strand West Hills Students on Catalina Island

Chilly winter winds blew hard across Southern California on Thursday, stranding a group of West Hills schoolchildren on Catalina Island and prompting authorities to issue high-wind warnings on local freeways.

The gusting winds and high seas caused the U.S. Coast Guard to halt ferry service between Catalina Island and San Pedro, delaying the return of 130 fifth-graders from Pomelo Drive Elementary School, officials said.

The students, along with a dozen teachers and parents, were scheduled to return to San Pedro on Wednesday after a three-day field trip to the Catalina Island Marine Institute, Assistant Principal Sean Foran said.

By Thursday afternoon, Coast Guard officials had allowed ferry service to resume. The group was expected to return to campus Thursday night.

“We have been in contact with the students and relaying information to their parents,” Foran said. “The kids looked forward to the added day and a ‘Gilligan’s Island’ type of adventure.”

The California Highway Patrol cautioned motorists, especially those traveling in vehicles with a high center of gravity, to be prepared for sudden strong crosswinds.

The CHP issued wind advisories Thursday afternoon for the Golden State Freeway between Halsey Canyon Road and California 138, as well as for the Ronald Reagan Freeway between the Golden State Freeway and the Ventura County line.

Thursday’s high winds were the result of a low-pressure system in the upper atmosphere combined with a strong jet stream traveling down the West Coast, said Tom Carlson, a meteorologist with Weather Central Inc., which provides forecast information to The Times.

As the air rushes across the region’s mountain ranges and canyons, it picks up speed and turns colder, which was predicted to result in subfreezing wind-chill temperatures overnight in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, Carlson said.

Today’s high temperatures are expected to be 56 in Lancaster, 60 in Newhall, 66 in Burbank, and 64 in Van Nuys and Woodland Hills. Lows are expected to range from the mid-30s to the upper 40s.