Southern California will host Thanksgiving Santa Ana winds

Strong Santa Ana winds and low humidity throughout Southern California are expected to abate on Monday, but another system will blow through the region from Wednesday and linger until a stormy Thanksgiving morning on Thursday.

A red flag warning went into effect at 9.00 Sunday and expires at. 3 p.m. on Monday, which will coincide with a wind warning, according to the National Weather Service. The current Santa Ana wind event whipping through the Los Angeles Basin is expected to peak on Sunday.

Gusts can reach 55 mph in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. Forecasts show isolated winds in gorges and pass at higher altitudes of up to 60 mph. Gusts reached 70 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains early Sunday morning, reported the weather service. Wind gusts will begin to subside towards Monday, about 10 to 15 mph less than Sunday, forecasters said. Humidity in most of southern California will bottom out due to the strong winds, reaching the single digits in some parts of the basin, including Anaheim, San Bernardino, Riverside and Lake Elsinore. This will create critical fire weather conditions with dry brush ready to ignite.

“Areas in a red flag warning will have an increased risk of fires spreading rapidly, spotting over long distances and extreme fire behavior, especially given the dry fuels in place throughout the region,” the weather service said.

That red flag warning will extend from Santa Barbara across Los Angeles County and into Orange County and along the entire coast. On Tuesday, there will be a break in the gusts in most of the region, but they are expected to start up again on Wednesday afternoon, the national weather service informs.

“Late Wednesday morning or early afternoon we begin to see another Santa Ana event going through at least Saturday and will reach its peak in the evening or Thanksgiving morning,” said Stefanie Sullivan, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Diego .

This week’s Santa Ana event is expected to be weaker than the wind that whipped through the region on Sunday. It is still too early to say whether conditions will require yet another red flag warning, but without rain in the forecast, it is likely to be a dry holiday next week.

Temperatures in the LA basin will reach the low 80s on Sunday and begin to decline from Tuesday, but are expected to get warmer again from Thursday. Conditions are hotter and drier than average. As of December, forecasts show above-average temperatures for most of southern California and a low chance of rain, according to the weather service.