Southern California braces for strongest Santa Ana winds of the year
The Santa Ana wind event will be the biggest storm to hit the Central Valley since 1962 when Hurricane Donna hit the region hard.
On Monday morning, forecasters said the wind event was likely to start in mid-afternoon.
Forecasters projected winds in excess of 40mph on Sunday.
But it’s not likely to be the strongest storm to hit the Central Valley since a much larger storm blew through the region in December 1962.
That storm was named Donna and developed as a Category Three hurricane as it approached the Mexican border near the mouth of the San distress river.
There were more than 2,000 deaths and tens of thousands of people left homeless, largely from storm surge flooding.
But there is little question the Santa Ana storm that is expected to hit the Central Valley will be the biggest storm to hit the region since Donna.
“The Santa Ana wind event is going to be the most powerful,” said Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Some of the heaviest rain is expected from late Monday into Tuesday.
Masters said it’s highly likely the storm will trigger landslides in the area.
The Santa Ana wind event will be the biggest storm to hit the Central Valley since 1962, when a storm named Donna blew through the region.
On Monday morning, though forecasters were projecting winds in excess of 40mph, they cautioned that this storm would not be the strongest storm of the year.
“It’s difficult to predict how strong it will be because we don’t have a historical event to compare it to,” Masters said. “We may see stronger winds in the next six hours, but that is purely a projection.”
The forecasters that tracked the storm Sunday said it was moving southeast through the Central Valley.
“The storm is still moving through,” Masters said. “It shouldn’t linger long in our area.”
The storm is not likely to cause any deaths.
The Santa Ana wind event is expected to hit the region on