Santa Ana Winds Prompt Red Flag Warnings, Power Shutoffs Across California

By
Harris
-
25

Key Points

  • The season’s first Santa Ana wind event put most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties under a National Weather Service Red Flag Warning from 9 a.m. ET Thursday to 11 p.m. ET Saturday.
  • Forecasters expect gusts of 45 to 55 mph in valleys and along the coast, isolated gusts to 65 mph, 50 to 70 mph in the mountains, and humidity as low as 8%.
  • PG&E began cutting power for safety Wednesday, with about 88,000 customers in 29 counties in scope and roughly 46,000 already off by late Wednesday night.
  • Southern California Edison has been weighing shutoffs for more than 220,000 customers, according to figures from its online dashboard reported by local media.
  • Winds are forecast to peak Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon Pacific time, while state crews stay prepositioned in Southern California through Sunday.

A Red Flag Warning for the season’s first Santa Ana winds took effect Thursday across most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as utilities across California cut or prepared to cut power to tens of thousands of customers to keep their lines from sparking fires.

The National Weather Service warning covers most valleys, coasts, mountains and foothills of both counties from 6 a.m. Thursday to 8 p.m. Saturday Pacific time (9 a.m. Thursday to 11 p.m. Saturday ET). Forecasters in Oxnard flagged a “high risk for extreme fire behavior with any new fire starts” through Saturday.

What happened

The weather service’s Los Angeles/Oxnard office said moderate to locally strong Santa Ana winds would develop quickly Thursday, peak from Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon, then slowly weaken over the weekend. Dry air is expected to erase the benefit of recent rain.

In the Santa Clarita, San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys, the Malibu Coast and Ventura County’s valleys and beaches, the warning calls for northeast to east winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts of 45 to 55 mph and isolated gusts to 65 mph. Minimum humidity of 8% to 15% is expected to be common.

In the mountains and foothills of both counties, including the Interstate 5 corridor, gusts could reach 50 to 70 mph with humidity of 10% to 25%. A separate High Wind Warning for the western Santa Monica Mountains, the I-5 and Highway 14 corridors and the San Gabriels runs until 8 p.m. PT Friday (11 p.m. ET) and states that “widespread power outages are expected.”

The Inland Empire is under a High Wind Warning until 8 p.m. PT Saturday, with gusts of 55 to 65 mph possible, the San Diego office said. A Heat Advisory allows highs up to 95 degrees along the Los Angeles County coast through Saturday. Red Flag Warnings also cover parts of the Sierra Nevada into Friday and the interior mountains of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties on Friday.

Latest development

Pacific Gas and Electric said at 5:30 p.m. PT Wednesday (8:30 p.m. ET) that it had begun turning off power for safety. About 88,000 customers across 29 counties were in scope, including about 5,500 Medical Baseline customers, according to the utility’s Public Safety Power Shutoff updates.

By 11:30 p.m. PT Wednesday, roughly 46,000 PG&E customers had been de-energized in counties including Butte, Placer, Sonoma, Napa, Alameda and Contra Costa. The company’s 6 a.m. PT Thursday update said more shutoffs would follow Thursday morning and again Friday morning.

In Southern California, Edison’s dashboard showed the utility considering shutoffs for more than 220,000 customers in Kern, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Tulare and Ventura counties as of Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported. ABC7 Los Angeles put the figure Thursday at about 224,500 customers in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Ventura County’s emergency services office said Edison was monitoring more than 90 circuits countywide.

At Gov. Gavin Newsom’s direction, CAL FIRE is adding engine strike teams across Southern California, and Cal OES is positioning firefighters, aircraft and equipment in Orange, Ventura, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties from Thursday morning through Sunday, the governor’s office said. Santa Monica Mountains parklands are also closing under a new Red Flag protocol.

Alert times and wind figures in this report reflect weather service alerts as of 1:05 p.m. ET Thursday. Around that time, CAL FIRE’s active-incident list showed no new large wildfire in the warning areas.

Why it matters

The Santa Anas arrive less than two years after the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires, which destroyed much of Altadena and Pacific Palisades. “There’s a high risk for any new fires to grow really fast,” weather service meteorologist Ryan Kittell told the Los Angeles Times this week.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, told the Times that areas west of the 405 Freeway face higher risk because they missed most of the recent rain. “This is not January 2025,” he said, adding that the winds, their reach and the dryness of vegetation are all less extreme than in early 2025.

A Red Flag Warning means critical fire weather is occurring now or will shortly, the weather service says. As with other alerts, a warning signals a more immediate threat than a watch, a distinction we explain in our guide to how weather watches and warnings differ. Shutoffs carry their own risks, especially for customers who rely on powered medical equipment.

What happens next

Confirmed: The strongest winds are expected Thursday afternoon into Friday afternoon PT. The Los Angeles-area High Wind Warning expires at 8 p.m. PT Friday (11 p.m. ET), and the Red Flag Warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties runs until 8 p.m. PT Saturday (11 p.m. ET). PG&E expects the event to last through Saturday evening and will inspect lines before restoring power. Customers can check an address at pge.com/pspsupdates or on Edison’s outage map.

Still uncertain: How many Edison customers will actually lose power, how long PG&E outages will last in each county, and whether forecasters will adjust the warnings. Officials urge residents near wildland areas to know their evacuation zone and be ready to leave if a fire starts.

For now, the setup is clear: dry air, strong gusts and a pre-emptive grid response, with firefighters already staged for the most dangerous stretch from Thursday afternoon into Friday.

Related live coverage

Track warnings, wind and fire weather across the country on our U.S. Weather Live center, and find national news channels streaming now on the Watch Live hub.

Sources