Santa Ana winds ease over Los Angeles
The Santa Ana winds have died down over Los Angeles, and winds should remain below 25 mph today through Thursday over the region. This should allow fire fighters to gain control of the three major blazes burning near the city. Wind gusts in excess of hurricane force--74 mph--were recorded at several mountain locations Friday and Saturday, thanks to the major difference in pressure between a strong high pressure system to the northeast of Los Angeles and lower pressure air over the ocean. By 4 pm PST Sunday, though, winds had fallen below 15 mph over the entire region (Figure 1), and a weak sea breeze had formed near the coast. Taking a look at this morning's wundermap (with fire layer turned on) for Los Angeles, we can see that winds are below 5 mph over the region. All high wind warnings and fire weather warnings have been canceled for California, but continued hot and dry conditions will slow down efforts of fire fighters to control the fires. The smoke has caused pollution problems in the city, and the Air Quality Index (AQI) for particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) exceeded the EPA standard yesterday. Today's pollution forecast calls for PM2.5 levels in the unhealthy for sensitive groups level, in excess of the EPA standards.
Figure 1. Wundermap (with fire layer turned on) for Los Angeles, California, at 4 pm EST Sunday November 16, 2008. Two major fires, the Sylmar fire to the north, and the Freeway fire to the east, are shown. The black colors show the relative concentration of smoke. The colored circles show the temperature, and the lines going into the circles show the direction the wind is blowing from. The perpendicular lines at the the end of these lines show how strong the wind is blowing. Each longer line is an additional 10 mph, and each shorter perpendicular line is an additional 5 mph. Thus, for the circle at upper right with a 66° temperature, the wind was blowing 15 mph out of the NNE. (Note that we've changed the convention used on marine maps, where these so-called "wind barbs" denote the winds in knots, not mph).
High temperature records
The hot flow of air off the desert set numerous high temperature records across Southern California on Sunday. Records set or tied included 88° in downtown Los Angeles, 93° in Camalillo; 86° at LAX airport; 90° at Long Beach; 89° at Paso Robles; 87° at Santa Maria; 91° at Woodland Hills; 87° at UCLA; 93° at Oxnard; and 87° at Santa Barbara. On Saturday, 30 high temperature records were set or tied across the state of California, including a blistering 93° in downtown Los Angeles (old record, 90° in 1936). The hottest new record was 94° at the Santa Ana Fire Station.
The forecast
Hot and dry conditions will persist over Los Angeles today, then gradually cool Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, winds should reverse and blow cool, moist air from the oceans over the city, allowing fire fighters to gain full control of the fires. By Saturday, the GFS model is indicating a possible return to Santa Ana wind conditions for the weekend, but the ECMWF model disagrees. At this point, it appears we may get a weak Santa Ana wind event this weekend, but nowhere near as strong as the one that just ended.
Figure 2. Visible satellite image from NASA's Terra satellite taken on Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 11:30 am PST. Smoke from the Sylmar fire 20 miles north of Los Angeles has drifted out over the Catalina Islands, joined by a larger plume of smoke from the "Freeway Fire" in Orange County.
Support the Portlight Christmas for Gulf Coast Kids Honor Walk
The Portlight.org charity is sponsoring a new nationwide grassroots event to raise funds for and awareness of their ongoing efforts, specifically to provide Christmas presents (and maybe a big party) for kids and families in the Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Ike. They need 100 people across the country to commit to walking one mile this Saturday, November 22, and to raise at least $300.00 in sponsorship from friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc. Participants can choose where they want to walk--the local park, the mall, anywhere. Please support this worthwhile effort!
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 — Blog Index
I'm doing pretty good. Things are ticking along fine, and the weather isn't as chilling as some of the East Coast dwellers seem to be experiencing.
And yourself?
I hear ya Rob. Just got my first under $100 bill for elec. Let winter begin!!
At least you won't thaw......LOL
You missed some interesting discussion last night. But I think a lot of people thought otherwise.
What is on the Agenda tonight I wonder ??
Later......
re 104: Good night Pottery: drenching rain all day here too; last week's drenching now in SW Caribbean, this may join it you think? I kept hoping for more shear and a big blow moving it off to the north- hasn't happened.
then thought what came off the coast of Africa might be the last hurrah- and it too would move north-maybe it will,But it's now a Low- Are we in for another week or so of non-stop rain?? Already have a moat around my house and got drenched in the power chair today, not good. The Cable guy showed up this am with a new box- TV worked fine, felt like keeping it on all day so everything would be ok when I came home- but with all the rain and thunder etc. turned it off- so tonite come home tv tells me a broken picture and then the infaamous sign "cable problems" again .Answer- the cable on the antenna got another drenching today, probably rusted a whole lot more- but of course with all the rain no one can go up on the roof- Well, there it is-
we're moving into the last two weeks of November, Independence is on the 30th and every year its an easy bet that the governor-General will be standing in the rain with an umbrella over his head while the troops get soaked. Have often thought it was a kind of nasty revenge thing that the Mother country "gave" most of the Eastern Caribean independene during rainy season just to spoil the fun- ha! Just joking Cotillion!
re last night- lots of folks who don't live outside the States don't always pick up on what we discusssed- but the global situation being what it is I think, some light may go on in the cerebrum as everyone begins to experience what this form of globalisation entails- enuf- seriousness- with no tv, may have to work (yuck) for the evening- too early for sleep.
Seriously tho- what do you make of the situation to the east and what it portends for us???
where u gonna be?
Sunrise and sunset...
Actual Time 12:35 PM AKST 1:45 PM AKST
Civil Twilight 10:04 AM AKST 4:16 PM AKST
Nautical Twilight 8:31 AM AKST 5:49 PM AKST
Astronomical Twilight 7:12 AM AKST 7:07 PM AKST
Moon No Moon Rise No Moon Set
Length Of Visible Light: 6h 11m
Length of Day
1h 10m
Tomorrow will be 70m 25s shorter.
gotta love -35 second days... lol
On November 18 or 19 the sun goes down, and remains below the horizon for about 65 days until it re-appears, normally on January 22 or January 23. During the first half of the polar night there is a decreasing amount of twilight each day, and on the winter solstice, December 21 or December 22, civil twilight in Barrow lasts for a mere 3 hours.
Personally, mine is Hurricane Love. Does it make more hurricanes? Personally, I don't want that kind of love.
Tropical Disturbance Summary (0130z 18NOV)
===========================================
An area of convection (90S) located at 9.0S 90.8E or 410 NM northeast of Cocos Island. Recent animated METSAT imagery and a 2224z TRMM image shows an elongated but consolidating low level circulation center. This low level circulation center lies equatorward of an upper level ridge axis in an area of moderate easterly vertical wind shear and favorable poleward and westward diffluence aloft.
Maximum sustained winds near the center is 15-20 knots with a minimum sea level pressure of 1008 MB. Because the low level circulation center is beginning to consolidate and vertical wind shear is stronger than optimal, the potential for this disturbance to form into a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is POOR.
Ivan.
Then there's Nana. Who ever came up with that...makes me think of the dog on peter pan...how could you take that seriously?
I'm assuming my avatar reminded you of him? :P
Yes, I too like Gilbert, hence my avatar.
I also really like that satellite picture of Andrew that you have in your avatar. I also like the one where he is over South Florida (the infrared shot). Unnerving.
Yes it did remind me lol. I like the Wilma and Tip satellite presentations too... (obviously)
came in to make to usual daily comment
so we're expecting nov 20 thru 26 to be colder...
LOL time to fluff up those feathers again inside the house
PS so tired too
That extratropical low in the Atlantic SW of the Azores may eventually become a subtropical storm. But other than that, the season is likely over.
there's that Ex.Trop Low
Hello everyone.......that is an ULL. It has no chance of developing into anything IMO.
Any of them that were used from 50-52, with the exception of Charlie were funny. Hurricane King, Hurricane Item, Hurricane Dog, Hurricane Easy, Hurricane Baker... lol
Other names tho:
Babe ('77)
Bess ('78)
Bertha ('57, '84, '90, '96, '02, '08)
Beryl ('82, '88, '94, '00, '06)
Blanche ('69, '75)
Candy ('68)
Daisy ('62)
Dottie ('76)
Edna ('68)
Ethel ('64)
Faith ('66)
Fern ('67, '71)
Fifi ('58, '74)
Flora ('63)
Flossy[ie] ('56, '78)
Gerda ('58, '61, '69)
Gertrude ('74)
Gilda ('54, '73)
Ginger ('67, '71)
Grace ('91, '97, '03)
Hermine ('98, '04)
Hilda ('64)
Hope ('78)
Inga ('61, '69)
Isbell ('64)
Isidore ('96, '02)
Joyce ('00)
Marilyn ('95)
Nadine ('00)
Nana ('90, '08)
Olga ('01, '07)
I know most of these names are feminine, but that's because the NHC used weird names before they redid the nomenclature and included male names and got rid of many of the stupid names, so only a few male names are weird. No offense to anyone with these names, I just thought them inappropriate for hurricanes.
LOL
ok.... wait I get it, when they switched from just F to F and M names
Bitc_es and Bastar_s would be better.......LMAO
just think if it was an early season one LOLOL (sounds like hunting season)
Its called being sadistic and wishing death on others.
What sort of cult are you in? JK
funny hollywood crappola
I think people like them believe in those films like if it were the bible to them (and their cult)
great post
Viewing: 101 - 151
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 — Blog Index