The windy weather conditions that have fueled the furious spread of wildfires in Southern California will continue into Wednesday afternoon. The worst winds may subside later in the day, but the fire danger will be far from over.
Wind speeds will most likely drop off in the late morning, forecasters said early Wednesday. But the winds have been so powerful — as fast as 75 miles per hour, and even near 100 m.p.h. in the mountains — that they would still be at damaging levels, contributing to critical or extreme fire conditions.
After the expected decrease late in the morning, wind speeds are expected to continue to decrease slowly through the afternoon and into the evening.
Another concern is the shifting wind direction. Andrew Rorke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, warned that the winds were expected to shift slightly and blow from the northeast, which could push the Palisades fire west, where there are more structures.
Even with the strong winds out of the northeast, swirling wind patterns known as eddies have formed in some locations, including near the Eaton fire east of Los Angeles. These changing winds, which can spin behind the downwind side of a large object, like a mountain, a rock outcropping or a building, could cause the fires to spread in unpredictable ways.
Even as the winds ease on Thursday, the multiple fires and extremely parched vegetation mean that even weak winds could continue to create a wildfire hazard.
More danger may be looming later in the week. Forecasters said Wednesday morning that another Santa Ana wind event is possible on Friday. It is expected to be a more typical event than the current one, with predominantly northeasterly winds focused along the typical Santa Ana wind corridor from the Santa Clarita Valley to Point Mugu.
Weather conditions are expected to improve over the weekend, but yet another Santa Ana event is likely next week.
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