As Predicted in Yesterday’s Blog Post

There are several ways that Mother Nature punishes Southern California for its (otherwise) mild climate:

• Earthquakes, such as the giant temblors that hit the San Fernando Valley in 1971 and 1994
• Wildfires
• The Santa Ana Winds (sometimes called the Devil Winds)

The Santa Ana Winds and the wildfires are closely connected. In January 2025, the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires were aided and abetted by dry wind gusts that reached up to 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour). I strongly suspect that earthquakes have a role to play in this devil’s brew of calamities, but I am at this point not sure exactly how.

According to Wikipedia, the Santa Ana Winds are what are called katabatic winds:

A katabatic wind (named from Ancient Greek κατάβασις (katabásis) ‘descent’) is a downslope wind caused by the flow of an elevated, high-density air mass into a lower-density air mass below. The spelling catabatic is also used. Since air density is strongly dependent on temperature, the high-density air mass is usually cooler, and the katabatic winds are relatively cool or cold.

In yesterday’s blog post, I stated that dry weather and gusty winds were predicted for today. The prediction was accurate. I sat around for much of the day sneezing and blowing my nose. Hopefully, the dry winds from the northeast will die down and I will be able to breathe normally.