Chilly Santa Ana winds to howl across Southern California into Saturday
Gusty winds, including a Santa Ana will howl across portions of California into Saturday.
Places outside of Los Angeles and San Diego are at the highest risk of experiencing the gusty winds in heavily-populated areas of Southern California.
“Areas that typically see Santa Ana winds will experience gusts in the neighborhood of 50 mph, including coastal Orange County and parts of San Diego County,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Ken Clark said.
According to Clark, the strongest winds will occur during the afternoon and evening hours on Friday, and then diminish somewhat by late Saturday.
“This will probably be the strongest Santa Ana event of the season so far,” Clark said.
While some Santa Ana winds bring hot weather to much of Southern California, air coming down from the north will result in temperatures that are near or even slightly below average.
"Winds this strong can break off tree limbs and cause sporadic power outages," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. "Motorists will need to keep a firm grip on the wheel as strong gusts can occur without notice."
The wildfire threat will increase as the winds increase and humidity levels drop, although recent rain and lower temperatures will prevent conditions from growing too hazardous.
Winds in some western slopes of the central and southern Sierra Nevada will gust to over 60 mph.
Visitors to Yosemite National Park and Kings Canyon National Park, California, should prepare for damaging wind gusts that can bring down trees and blow around loose objects.
These winds typically weaken considerably before reaching Fresno and Sacramento, California.
In addition to the wind, cold air could be a problem in some locations.
Across part of the San Joaquin Valley, below-freezing temperatures are expected in normally colder outlying areas by Saturday morning.
As the weekend progresses, the wind will diminish down and temperatures will start to bounce back a bit across central and southern California.
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