Santa Ana winds are forecast to return this week, bringing another fire weather watch to the Santa Clarita Valley after thousands across the region faced power shutoffs on Thanksgiving.
The National Weather Service issued a fire weather watch to take effect late Wednesday night through Friday afternoon due to gusty winds and low relative humidity for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Northeast winds could range between 25 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph and humidity between 5% to 15%, which prompted the National Weather Service to issue a “red flag warning” from Wednesday evening through Saturday evening.
“There is a chance that Red Flag conditions will continue through early next week,” read the weather watch memo. “If fire ignition occurs, conditions will be favorable for rapid fire spread, long-range spotting, and extreme fire behavior which would threaten life and property.”
Temperatures on Thursday are forecast to reach a high near 65 degrees and a low around 42 degrees, before warming up over the weekend near the low 70s and low 40s at night, according to the weather service.
The fire weather watch comes after a previous Red Flag warning issued for L.A. and Ventura counties due to strong Santa Ana winds over the Thanksgiving holiday, which prompted Southern California Edison to shut off power to thousands of customers, including multiple SCV communities in portions of ZIP codes such as 91321, 93510 and 91387.
On Tuesday, more than 264,000 customers, or 5.3% of the utility’s total number of customers, faced possible shutoffs over the coming days. In the SCV, communities mostly in the Acton and Canyon Country areas were being monitored for possible public safety power shutoffs from Wednesday through Saturday, according to SoCal Edison’s PSPS online map.
To check the status of an update, utility customers can sign up to receive alerts via sce.com/wildfire/psps-alerts or call 1-800-655-4555.
