Batten down the hatches. The National Weather Service has issued a warning for “life-threatening and destructive” winds for parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties beginning Tuesday.
The NWS posted an alert on X Monday with a graphic of areas of greatest concern, with the headline “Extreme Risk – Take Immediate Action”. Areas expected to be most impacted include Pasadena, Burbank, San Fernando, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Simi Valley, Sylmar, Porter Ranch, Altadena, La Crescenta, Malibu as well as highways 118/210 corridors, San Gabriel/Santa Susana/Santa Monica mountains and foothills, San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys.
The NWS says damaging winds also are expected outside of those areas. Forecasters are warning residents to stay indoors and away from windows and to expect widespread power outages. The weather service is likening the approaching windstorm to the devastating 2011 windstorm that pummeled Pasadena and and San Gabriel Valley foothills with hurrricane-force winds that felled thousands of trees, downed hundreds of power lines, displaced scores of residents and left hundreds of thousands without power, some for a week.
North to northeast winds 25 to 40 mph with gusts between 60 and 80 mph are expected to begin Tuesday afternoon and last into Wednesday morning. Red Flag warnings also are in effect for much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties Tuesday through Thursday, due to low relative humidities. The fire danger will be especially acute on Wednesday.
Unlike a Santa Ana event, however, the winds will be colder than normal, with highs on Tuesday 5-10 degrees below normal.
The region is still recovering from the wind-driven Mountain Fire that destroyed more than 130 structures north of Los Angeles and forced thousands of evacuations in early November.
