(disambiguation).

The Santa Ana winds sweep down from the deserts and across coastal Southern
California, pushing dust and smoke from wildfires far out over the Pacific Ocean.
Los Angeles is in the upper left of this image, while San Diego is near the center.
The Santa Ana winds (sometimes devil winds)[1][2] are strong, extremely dry
downslope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and
northern Baja California. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure air masses in
the Great Basin.

Santa Ana winds are known for the hot, dry weather that they bring in autumn (often
the hottest of the year), but they can also arise at other times of the year.[3]
They often bring the lowest relative humidities of the year to coastal Southern
California, and "beautifully clear skies".[4] These low humidities, combined with
the warm, compressionally-heated air mass, plus high wind speeds, create critical
fire weather conditions and fan destructive wildfires.[4]

There are typically about ten to twenty-five Santa Ana wind events annually.[5] A
Santa Ana can blow from one to seven days, with an average wind event lasting three
days.[6] The longest recorded Santa Ana event was a 14-day wind in November 1957.
[5] Damage from high winds is most common along the Santa Ana River basin in Orange
County, the Santa Clara River basin in Ventura and Los Angeles County, through
Newhall Pass into the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, and through the
Cajon Pass into San Bernardino County near San Bernardino, Fontana, and Chino.[6]

Description
Meteorology
The Santa Anas are katabatic winds (Greek for "flowing downhill") arising in higher
altitudes and blowing down towards sea level.[7] The National Weather Service
defines Santa Ana winds as "a weather condition [in southern California] in which
strong, hot, dust-bearing winds descend to the Pacific Coast around Los Angeles
from inland desert regions".[8]

This map illustration shows a characteristic high-pressure area centered over the
Great Basin, with the clockwise anticyclone wind flow out of the high-pressure
center giving rise to a Santa Ana wind event as the airmass flows through the
passes and canyons of Southern California, manifesting as a dry northeasterly wind.
Santa Ana winds originate from high-pressure airmasses over the Great Basin and
upper Mojave Desert. Any low-pressure area over the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of
California, can change the stability of the Great Basin High, causing a pressure
gradient that turns the synoptic scale winds southward down the eastern side of the
Sierra Nevada and into the Southern California region.[9] According to one
meteorology journal, "a popular rule of thumb used by forecasters is to measure the
difference in pressure between the Los Angeles International Airport and Las Vegas;
a difference of 9 millibars (0.27 inches of mercury) is enough to support a Santa
Ana event."[5] Dry air flows outward in a clockwise spiral from the high pressure
center. This dry airmass sweeps across the deserts of eastern California toward the
coast, and encounters the towering Transverse Ranges, which separate coastal
Southern California from the deserts.[10] The airmass, flowing from high pressure
in the Great Basin to a low pressure center off the coast, takes the path of least
resistance by channeling through the mountain passes to the lower coastal
elevations, as the low pressure area off the coast pulls the airmass offshore.[11]

Mountain passes which channel these winds include the Soledad Pass, the Cajon Pass,
and the San Gorgonio Pass, all well known for exaggerating Santa Anas as they are
funneled through.[5] As the wind narrows and is compressed into the passes its
velocity increases dramatically, often to near-gale force or above. At the same
time, as the air descends from higher elevation to lower, the temperature and
barometric pressure increase adiabatically, warming about 5 °F for each 1,000 feet
it descends (1 °C for each 100 m).[12] Relative humidity decreases with the
increasing temperature. The air has already been dried by orographic lift before
reaching the Great Basin, as well as by subsidence from the upper atmosphere, so
this additional warming often causes relative humidity to fall below 10 percent.
[13]

The end result is a strong, warm, and very dry wind blowing out of the bottom of
mountain passes into the valleys and coastal plain. These warm, dry winds, which
can easily exceed 40 miles per hour (64 km/h),[citation needed] can severely
exacerbate brush or forest fires, especially under drought conditions.

During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the
deserts,[14] with the Southern California coastal region reaching some of its
highest annual temperatures in autumn rather than summer. Frigid, dry arctic air
from Canada tends to create the most intense Santa Ana winds.[15]

QuikSCAT image showing the speed of the Santa Ana winds (m/s)
While the Santa Anas are katabatic, they are not Föhn winds. These result from
precipitation on the windward side of a mountain range which releases latent heat
into the atmosphere which is then warmer on the leeward side (e.g., the Chinook or
the original Föhn).

If the Santa Anas are strong, the usual day-time sea breeze may not arise, or
develop weak later in the day because the strong offshore desert winds oppose the
on-shore sea breeze. At night, the Santa Ana Winds merge with the land breeze
blowing from land to sea and strengthen because the inland desert cools more than
the ocean due to differences in the heat capacity and because there is no competing
sea breeze.[13][16]

Santa Ana winds are associated in the public mind with dry hot weather, but cold
Santa Anas not only exist but have a strong correlation with the highest
"regionally averaged" wind speeds.[17]

Regional impacts

The Thomas Fire and two other fires burn out of control near Ventura in December
2017, with a strong Santa Ana wind driving the flames toward the coast and blowing
the smoke offshore.
Santa Ana winds often bring the lowest relative humidities of the year to coastal
Southern California. These low humidities, combined with the warm, compressionally-
heated air mass, plus the high wind speeds, create critical fire weather
conditions. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness accompanying the Santa Ana
winds turns the chaparral into explosive fuel feeding the infamous wildfires for
which the region is known.

Although the winds often have a destructive nature, they have some benefits as
well. They cause cold water to rise from below the surface layer of the ocean,
bringing with it many nutrients that ultimately benefit local fisheries. As the
winds blow over the ocean, sea surface temperatures drop about 4°C (7°F),
indicating the upwelling. Chlorophyll concentrations in the surface water go from
negligible, in the absence of winds, to very active at more than 1.5 milligrams per
cubic meter in the presence of the winds.[5]

Local maritime impacts

During the Santa Ana winds, large ocean waves can develop. These waves come from a
northeasterly direction toward the normally sheltered sides of the Channel Islands,
including commonly visited Catalina and Santa Cruz islands. Normally well-sheltered
harbors and anchorages such as Avalon and Two Harbors can develop high surf and
strong winds that can tear boats from their moorings. During Santa Ana conditions,
it is advised that boaters moor on the Southern side of affected islands or return
to the mainland.[18]

Related phenomena
Santa Ana fog
A Santa Ana fog is a derivative phenomenon in which a ground fog settles in coastal
Southern California at the end of a Santa Ana wind episode. When Santa Ana
conditions prevail, with winds in the lower two to three kilometers (1.25-1.8
miles) of the atmosphere from the north through east, the air over the coastal
basin is extremely dry, and this dry air extends out over offshore waters of the
Pacific Ocean. When the Santa Ana winds cease, the cool and moist marine layer may
re-form rapidly over the ocean if conditions are right. The air in the marine layer
becomes very moist and very low clouds or fog occurs.[19][20] If wind gradients
turn on-shore with enough strength, this sea fog is blown onto the coastal areas.
This marks a sudden and surprising transition from the hot, dry Santa Ana
conditions to cool, moist, and gray marine weather, as the Santa Ana fog can blow
onshore and envelop cities in as quickly as fifteen minutes. However, a true Santa
Ana fog is rare, because it requires conditions conducive to rapid re-forming of
the marine layer, plus a rapid and strong reversal in wind gradients from off-shore
to on-shore winds. More often, the high pressure system over the Great Basin, which
caused the Santa Ana conditions in the first place, is slow to weaken or move east
across the United States. In this more usual case, the Santa Ana winds cease, but
warm, dry conditions under a stationary air mass continue for days or even weeks
after the Santa Ana wind event ends.

A related phenomenon occurs when the Santa Ana condition is present but weak,
allowing hot dry air to accumulate in the inland valleys that may not push all the
way to sea level. Under these conditions auto commuters can drive from the San
Fernando Valley where conditions are sunny and warm, over the low Santa Monica
Mountains, to plunge into the cool cloudy air, low clouds, and fog characteristic
of the marine air mass. This and the "Santa Ana fog" above constitute examples of
an air inversion.

Sundowner winds
Main article: Sundowner (wind)
The similar winds in the Santa Barbara and Goleta area occur most frequently in the
late spring to early summer, and are strongest at sunset, or "sundown"; hence their
name: sundowner. Because high pressure areas usually migrate east, changing the
pressure gradient in Southern California to the northeast, it is common for
"sundowner" wind events to precede Santa Ana events by a day or two.[21]

Historical impact

Hygrometer showing low humidity during a Santa Ana wind event

The Santa Ana winds and the accompanying raging wildfires have been a part of the
ecosystem of the Los Angeles Basin for over 5,000 years, dating back to the
earliest habitation of the region by the Tongva and Tataviam peoples.[22] The Santa
Ana winds have been recognized and reported in English-language records as a
weather phenomenon in Southern California since at least the mid-nineteenth
century.[1] During the Mexican–American War, Commodore Robert Stockton reported
that a "strange, dust-laden windstorm" arrived in the night while his troops were
marching south through California in January 1847.[5] Various episodes of hot, dry
winds have been described over this history as dust storms, hurricane-force winds,
and violent north-easters, damaging houses and destroying f