What's Causing Extreme Santa Ana Winds In December? A Meteorologist Explains
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The fire season is typically September to May but we usually don't see Santa Ana conditions driving wildfires like we've had this week.
The problem this year is we've only had a tenth of an inch of rain across Southern California. Normally we would have about 1.86 inches by now. Dry conditions bring ridges of high pressure followed by low pressure.
Weather Channel Meteorologist Mark Thibodeau explains how these dry conditions can stoke up the winds:
After the winds are expected to kick up Thursday and Friday, the good news Thibodeau says is that winds will die down over the weekend and the not-so-hot temperatures won't exacerbate the fires.
