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Subscribe to RSSStrong gusts caused a blackout at LAX on Tuesday evening and meteorologists say the wind could become stronger on Wednesday. The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore reports.
LOS ANGELES - High winds flipped over trees and trucks and knocked out power to more than 300,000 California customers before moving inland early Thursday, where schools in a Utah town closed because of 100 mph wind gusts.
Some of the worst Santa Ana winds in years blasted through California Wednesday and Thursday, sweeping down through canyons and creating gusts of up to 80 mph through the night, with a 97-mph gust recorded Wednesday night at Whitaker Peak in Los Angeles County. High gusts Thursday morning topped 60 mph.
The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings and wind advisories for parts of California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.
"What's driving this is a large, cold low-pressure system that's currently centered over Needles, Calif. The strong winds are wrapping around it," weather service forecaster Andrew Rorke said.
The system will sit and spin counter-clockwise over the area for the next day, although "it won't be quite as hellacious" as on Wednesday night, Rorke said.
The pressure front will then begin moving cross-country, eventually bringing blustery weather to Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana, he said.
An estimated 300,000 customers in Southern California were without electricity Thursday morning and about 26,000 more in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. San Francisco was spared any blackouts but thousands elsewhere in the Bay area were in the dark.
"We're making a dent in repairs, but we don't know what the winds will bring later this afternoon," Mark Hanson of SoCal Edison said, reported NBCLosAngeles.com.
In Southern California, high winds blew over at least six semitrailers before dawn on highways below the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mario Lopez. One trucker was taken to a hospital.
Twenty-three flights were diverted and several delayed beginning Wednesday at Los Angeles International airport because of severe crosswinds and debris on runways, officials said. An hour-long power outage Wednesday evening affected all passenger terminals. The winds had died down by Thursday morning but some delays were reported in both arriving and departing flights, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
Northeast of Los Angeles, foothill communities were hard hit as the winds swept down the San Gabriel Mountains.
Pasadena closed schools and libraries Thursday and declared a local emergency, the first time since 2004. Fire spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said 40 people were evacuated from an apartment building Thursday morning after a tree collapsed, smashing part of the roof.
"We've had several fires, trees into structures, limbs down," Lisa Derderian, Emergency Management Coordinator for the city of Pasadena, told NBCLosAngeles.com. About 6,000 people lost power in Pasadena, reported NBC.
In nearby Glendale, high winds ripped the roof off a restaurant.
Two house fires, possibly caused by downed power lines, critically burned one person, seriously injured three others and forced seven others to flee, Derderian said. There have been hundreds of reports of wires down, she said. Trees also fell and some roads are impassable.
Overnight, a tree collapsed the canopy of a gas station, but an employee shut off the pumps and no fuel spilled. Another tree toppled onto a car, trapping the driver, who was taken to a hospital.
"We probably have over 100 trees that are down and arcing wires and transformers that have blown," police Lt. Jari Faulkner told the Los Angeles Times.
Across the sprawling suburban San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, hundreds of trees and power lines were down, many blocking streets.
Along Huntington Drive, a major, six-lane thoroughfare that carries traffic into downtown Los Angeles, nearly every traffic light was dark across a distance of more than 10 miles, snarling traffic during the morning commute.
In Arcadia, 15 miles east of Los Angeles, power was out and numerous large trees were blocking residential streets. The local school district closed all of its campuses, including the high school, three middle schools and six elementary schools.
The winds were colder but fiercer than the Santa Ana winds that often hit California in late fall, but they carried the same ability to dry out brush and push fires into conflagrations.
Los Angeles boosted its fire department staffing because of a red flag warning of high fire danger. Early Thursday morning, crews doused a 2-acre grass fire in a park near Occidental College. Downed power lines sparked the blaze in the midst of 80-mph wind gusts.
The National Weather Service’s red flag warning is in effect until Friday evening, according to NBCLosAngeles.com.
Dramatic (and operatic) rescues
In northwestern Los Angeles County, sheriff's deputies rescued two men trapped on a dam spillway near a 200-drop. The men had gone sailing in a 10-foot boat Wednesday but gusting winds kicked up a 5-foot swell and they capsized. They clung to the boat as high winds pushed them to the dam, according to a Sheriff's Department statement.
They were rescued and treated for mild hypothermia, and one man, a former opera singer, was so appreciative that he serenaded the rescuers with "God Bless America," according to the statement.
High winds in Utah overturned several tractor-trailers and knocked out power to more than 30,000 customers. Police asked schools to close in Centerville, Utah, where a 100 mph gust was reported Thursday morning.
In Wyoming, the prevailing winds usually come from the west but the storm is bringing winds from the northeast. The weather service said the shift in the winds could result in more damage than winds of the same magnitude from the normal direction.
- From NBCLosAngeles: Damaging winds tear through Southern Calif.
- Also on this story: Tree crashes into actress Rebecca Gayheart's home
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Welcome to the new age of excessive atmospheric energy.
I grew up in So Cal and dealt with these winds. Never had them do any damage to our house. At those reported speeds that is hurricane force. Zapper where those winds come through out near Palm Springs they have a very large amount of turbine windmills that due harmess some of that wind, how much I don't know.
Yep, this storm is a bit stronger than most of them, what's causing this bit of weather is not climate change, but La Nina.
Santa Ana winds are local, the storm system will indeed travel east.
This wind happens every few years. I live here.
That isn't wind! We have wind like that daily here in GOD's country! Sorry you might have spilt your mocha cherry double espresso, you freaking sissies!
I wouldn't call it just wind. "Just" wind wouldn't rip out full grown trees and shove them through your back wall. We've had trampolines take flight, fences blown to pieces, all kinds of crap. The article neglected to mention that Centerville actually had to declare a state of emergency because of all the damage. Maybe it wasn't a tornado or something worthy of national news, but I'd say having a 60 foot pine come through your house is still pretty devastating. (Thankfully that wasn't us)
them californian's know how to party...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3OfkdPnbQ
BS. There is no excess atmospheric energy. This years hurricane season was a dud. Without satellites spotting short lived tropical storms this year wouldn't have gotten any attention at all. If there is excess energy then why has it been over 6 years since a major hurricane has hit the US?
If you had read the article you would see where it stated that a cold front was fueling these winds. Not global warming.
It takes interaction between cold dry air and warm moist air to create storms. If everything on Earth was warming like the alarmists have been claiming there would be less cold air to interact.
Hey Catsclaw81,
I drove throught that mess this morning from SLC to Clearfield. Looked like a distaster zone with sign fragments flying through the air and at least 10 semi's turned over on the way. A guy I work with said that his neighbors roof was completely demolished and missing. Yes these are not your typicall canyon winds for sure.
It would be nice to find some way to harness the energy from all these winds. It would be too much for windmills, but some turbines might be able to handle it.
Harnessing wind?! What is next collecting the sun's rays in some panel contraption?! Get back to work drone! Leave the ciphering to us...
What makes you think they can harness this wind, when for years they haven't been able to find a use for all the wind coming out of Washington DC?
The Washington DC wind cannot be harnessed has too much particulate mater in it.
Most of this matter is in the form of Male Bovine excrement.
Funny. Some censor on another site bounced the same type comment. Uncastrated male bovine excrement was deemed offensive. Guess it should have been plainly stated....Bull@!$%#.
Interesting....the winds are heading to Oklahoma, Missouri, and Indiana. Guess it is going to skip over Illinois. Hmmmm.
The wind never blows in Illinois... It sucks.
probably doesn't want to have to pay all the tolls. you know how chintzy winds can be.
Please Google Whitaker Peak before you let the sensationalist "journalists" here lead you to believe 97 mph winds are pummeling LA. It is a 4000+ foot peak in LA county, and is actually quite a distance from LA itself. Nearest towns are Castaic and Santa Clarita, and yeah, it gets windy there (but still not as high as the gusts that get funneled through peaks). It is amazing how writers with an agenda can make things appear so drastic without actually lying--just not thoroughly explaining or emphasizing facts. 100 mph gusts through the mountain tops is not rare or new. But if you feel guilty, go right ahead and park your car, stop running your lawn mower, and stop all those outdoor barbeques. Humans are afflicted with a complex that makes some of us actually believe we can outsmart and control nature. Don't know how this planet survived without us for billions of years. Wonder what we would have done, had we been around, to halt the coming (and/or going) of the last few ice ages. Those ol' mammoths and cave dudes must have really been burning up the freeways...
I figured a Koch Bot would show up eventually.
Yes 100 mph gusts in the mountain tops are not rare, but the valleys are getting the 100 mph gusts in Utah, and that is rare! The mountain tops are getting higher than that.
dc-511192
You took a news report and turned it intoa rant about writers, the media, and I can't figure what else you were really trying to get at. It was mearly a report of very high sustained Santa Ana wind conditions, which if you live in So. Cal, you know the fire danger from these winds is much worse than the damage from the wind. I live approximately 28 miles South of L.A. in a beach community and had to open the garage door to get to my front door to be able to open the screen due to leaves piled up perhaps 2-3 ft high. It was just a news report regarding Santa Ana Wind conditions, which were quite severe last night. Not a conspiracy for sensationalistic journalists. Journalist live for sensational stories, I agree....the Santa Ana winds are just a weather event that effects So. California this time of year. And it is important to report on. It issues our Red Flag Warning System, and protects our communities due to the dangers these winds pose.
Wow, you picked one little location that the article mentions and rip on it...interesting. There were several locations where people actually live across multiple states with gusts recorded in the 90-100 mph range. Centerville, Utah was one to be exact, which is only 10 miles from where I live AND where our fences are blown over, half my roof shingles are in my front yard, my neighbor has a huge tree down on top of her garage and the neighbor across the street's swamp cooler has been ripped from the roof. Downed trees everywhere within a 5 mile radius, some fallen on homes, some not.
Oh...it must be god... sorry, that cover is blown. It really is man (only a few sick, profiteering ones) with an evil agenda. In "The Wizard of Oz" reveals how things actually work - you know, behind the curtain?
It never ceases to amaze me how people from either coast just fold and fall to pieces every time they get a little weather. The folks who live in the mid-west seem to take weather like this in stride and never much complain, unless they are transplants from one of the coasts.
At least one good thing about these winds in Mexifornia, they will blow some of the stank off the OWS nut-jobs.
As opposed to tea-baggers who'll completely stink regardless of how hard their foul wind blows.
And when a tree falls on your trailer park home or a tornado rips it to shreds, we "Mexifornians" will have the same sympathy for you. Why people like you make asinine comments like this is beyond me. Just pathetic.
you'll just cry when a tornado rips thru your town and you collect your umpteenth FEMA bailout so you can build another house of sticks the big bad weather wolf will blow down in another couple of years. go collect your farm subsidies and quit trying to sound so gosh darn superior.
It knocked power out in Idaho, too. Why didn't we get into the story?
Wind and power outages in Idaho aren't news.
So no one can decide if this is global warming/climate change or not. Could it be that god was trying to blow the Occupy LA folks into the ocean? Worth considering.
Natural weather is what it is. Man made weather is a process that has been perfected over the decades through cloud seeding and modern creations of HAARP and electromagnetic energies. Could seeding, also other modern terms as Aerosol Spraying (chemtrails) and land and sea based units that can produce Texas or event continental size weather patterns in a matter of hours are the modern (destructive) weather conditions appearing across the globe of recent times. The goal of US military has always been the weather and now with all the tools in place, they have reached it. GeoEngineering is the new science that is a global activity.
the wind turbines should really be producing some big amounts of electricity..EEEEEEHHAAAAAAA to bad all the lines are down .....damn it all.....
When the wind gets too high the turbines are stopped because the blades would spin so fast that they would be torn apart by the centrifugal force on them. I think the limit is around 30 to 40 mph.
dont worry obama will find another stupid solution Hmmmm how about a how about a ......nuclear wind generating solar panel power generating system built in illinios by the best damn union boys in the country,and approved by those marvalous employees in detroit at government motors..... and your local teachers association and all government workers who work so hard for so much money and benefits that the ordinary citizen doesnt have or will never get.........
Yeah.... those teachers are really swimming in dough, huh? LOL!
idiots like this think teachers get paid for being off in summer and breaks....what ass-hat up there doesn't realize is that teachers spread their paltry paychecks over the twelve months so they can afford to eat when they aren't in class.....oh, and i'm sure he hasn't a clue how much time teachers put in at home or in the classroom after hours, far and above the 40-hour week most americans work.....no, this einstein thinks he has all the answers......thinks our insurance and retirement is just handed to us, that we don't pay a dime for it.....get a clue, byron. looks like some teacher did a fairly good job with you...you only misspelled a few words and had a few punctuation errors....
I lived in brigham City, UT as a teen. Strong winds, especially in the winter were common. We called them "canyon breezes" if theyn were less than 40 mph.
darthdon, where do you live now? i live in roy, and work in SLC. the drive down the I-15 corridor this morning was ridiculous. the part of the story where they say "several tractor trailers" were blown over is inaccurate; it was over 10 as i drove through North Bountiful. After that, the winds died down.
Anyway, hope that gives everyone some perspective on the magnitude of this wind storm.
I have to say that 30 or 40 years ago 60 and 80 MPH winds from the canyons all along the Wasatch front were not uncommon certain times of the year. If there was a high pressure on the Morgan side of the hills from where I lived the wind from the canyons around me would just about blow you right off your feet. Store signage would get torn down all the time. It could be quite exciting.
Over 10 is several.
@cmccab01 - I am back where I was born, Florida.
extreme wind hits six states.. and, in other news, actress Kirstie Alley says she'll never eat beans again
News flash: It's cold in the Winter and hot in the Summer! And sometimes it's really windy even where people live!
We don’t want the occupy people succeeding on our behalf, we want to be slaves to the 1% and after all, we don’t need jobs for America. We like their lies, trickle on you.
And these winds, they aren’t any worse, we had them last year just as strong, and the year before, and the year before that.
No amount of Global Weather Change will get me to remove my blinders, they are just too comfortable.
Yicks! That's like category 2 hurricane wind gusts in Utah.
This happens 2-3 times a year. No big deal. I have seen & felt worse here in California. Maybe it will blow away the "problems" in Los Angeles starting with the Mayor.
The old saying goes"You can't fool mother nature"
i guess it's just that new mother nature taking over...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TELIl6TcO4
This really blows...
All joking aside, its going to be expensive fixing all the damage as mother nature works to correct itself.
That isn't wind! We have wind like that daily here in GOD's country! Sorry you might have spilt your mocha cherry double espresso, you freaking sissies!
BGD-you have no heart whatsoever. We're a month till Christmas, and this storm HAS managed to wreak serious destruction on people's homes. They are now homeless until they can get it fixed. Try having just a bit of sympathy for those that have actually suffered from the storm, and quit being such a stuck-up freak.
Ignore blackgoldokie, cats. He/she is a loser douche bag.
Is this the beginning of the end? 2012 is just around the corner.
I live here in L.A., close to downtown and It was really blowing pretty hard. The skies were clear, but the trees were bent as if fighting off a hurricane, debris was being tossed to and fro and the power seemed not to be able to decide if it was going to be on or off. Thus it was through the night as my kitty and myself snuggled together in our warm comforter fortress of bliss. In the morning as I ventured outside, I found that the door to my house was partially blocked by a giant (kinda small) graveyard of lost and wayward maple leaves. Now, all of the debris is resting peacefully throughout the yard and a lazy calm has settled over the whole neighborhood. Checking the weekend forecast it became clear that Biscuits and myself might be in for another rough night! Batten down the hatches kitty cat, the winds are a comin'!
I assume you are already an experienced animal owner, but I'll just put up a quick reminder for those that don't think about it, do NOT let your cat outside while this is going on! Aside from the risk of injury, they could easily get freaked out by flying debris or just the sheer force of the wind. Best to keep them inside and safe.
Oh, and that goes for kids, too. No roller skates and umbrellas on the sidewalk! (Yes, I tried that as a kid! Regretted it, too).
this year this wintry win blow from the north blow alot harder then in yester year winter win . power was tripping off and on mamy times here east of l.a . tree limb was every where on the resident street . a line of knock down by a tree limb lucky it was not power line . leaves are on the yard and on the street.
Climate change means that the normal is amplified to be either larger or smaller. Climate change means that what we expect to happen where we live becomes rare and extremes become normal.
The Sahara Desert had been tropical and moist but changed withing the life span of a man to dry desert. La Nina is driven by climate change and is not the driver of climate change.
All it takes is for the oceans to change in nature for the climate of nations to change. The jet stream and the oceans make our weather. When the earth is warmer, the winds change and the oceans either heast up or cools which affects the land's environment. Remember, the Arctic was once subtropical, the Alps used to have snow and glaciers.
I see climate change 4 times a year..Its called Spring,Summer,Fall and Winter..Everything else is Bs..
Natural weather is what it is. Man made weather is a process that has been perfected over the decades through cloud seeding and modern creations of HAARP and electromagnetic energies. Could seeding, also other modern terms as Aerosol Spraying (chemtrails) and land and sea based units that can produce Texas or event continental size weather patterns in a matter of hours are the modern (destructive) weather conditions appearing across the globe of recent times. The goal of US military has always been the weather and now with all the tools in place, they have reached it. GeoEngineering is the new science that is a global activity.