In case anyone has been wondering, the Lakeview Terrace fire is about 5 miles from me. Luckily it seems to be moving in the opposite direction and the wind is blowing away from me. I shouldn't have to evacuate, but if y'all can think good thoughts I'd appreciate it.
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As soon as I finish sending you good thoughts, I have to figure out how to get my patio umbrella and all my outdoor furniture out of my pool....
Ah, don't you just love the Santa Ana winds? :p
stay safe.
my husband's in California on business and he told me about that awful winds.
Santa Ana winds just an autumn thing, or any time? And why are they called the Santa Ana winds?
Enquiring mind,
emma
Well, just call me "Allan Kilgore"---I just Googled Santa Ana winds and went to this site:
http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~fovell/ASother/mm5/SantaAna/santa_ana_faq.html
very interesting.
Although in fairness -- I have not posted ONCE anything remotely connected to Hitler, a 300 dollar house, or getting an enema from my grandmother and mother when I was a kid.
They're mostly a fall and winter thing. The wind comes from inland, the desert, and gets channeled through a canyon through which the Santa Ana river runs, creating kind of a wind tunnel effect that cranks the already heavy winds up to a ridiculous level. Alas for me, I live right in that wind tunnel, just yards from the Santa Ana river, right in the mouth of the canyon. I have seen a wrought iron and glass table lifted four feet off the ground, hover in midair and then go flying over a wall and into the next yard. I've often seen full sized trees pulled straight up out of the ground and left lying on their sides, leaving a huge hole where the uprooted root ball was. Weird stuff will turn up in your back yard--toys, those decorative flags people hang on their houses, cushions from lawn furniture, trash cans, who knows what, or where it came from.
The wind is VERY dry, and almost as soon as it starts blowing, your skin turns to crocodile skin, your lips dry up and peel and your eyelids feel like they have sand under them. It's hard to get any sleep at night, because the sound is like a freight train running through your yard.
One thing that I like about the Santa Anas is that it gets very, VERY bright, because every little cloud or bit of smog is blown away. I always feel slightly buzzed when the winds come, and I've always attributed it to the crazy bright light, but I've also heard that positive ions are blown in, and cause a mood lift in some people. It's really, really a weird phenomenon.
Oops. Not sure how I did that! My apologies!
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