Autumn’s sizzling start
Fanned by Santa Ana winds, temperatures reach triple digits across the Southland.
Don’t pull out your fall wardrobe just yet.
Southern California felt more like summer than autumn Monday, thanks to triple-digit temperatures and powerful Santa Ana winds.
That dry sauna effect worried local fire officials, but the day’s most immediate peril was to the north, where a pair of major new blazes surged out of control.
Fanned by powerful Santa Ana winds, the mercury reached a sizzling 104 degrees in downtown L.A.
But it was scorching all over.
The temperature in Oxnard reached 105 degrees, surpassing the record mark of 104 set in September 1939, not to mention the 98-degree high mark for the day set in 1978, according to the National Weather Service.
“Even though in L.A. the temperatures were not quite record-breaking, they were extremely hot, even out toward the beaches,” said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The average high temperature in Oxnard this time of year is in the mid-70s, but large swings in temperatures are not unusual in September, which is about as hot, on average, as July.
“This time of year you get those wild swings,” said me-
teorologist Kathy Hoxsie of the National Weather Service.
The hot, dry, gusty winds, which reached speeds as high as 40 mph in some areas, were largely responsible for the oven-like conditions that raised temperatures some 20 degrees higher than average across the region.
An already significant fire danger increased, prompting officials to issue a red-flag warning.
“When we issue a red-flag warning, what we mean is when a fire starts it could have explosive growth,” Seto said. “If a fire had started, it would have spread rapidly, especially with the winds and the heat and the low humidity.”
That was the scenario in Sonoma County.
A fast-growing wildfire exploded across 1,500 acres, triggering evacuations.
The Sawmill fire, which was 45% contained Monday night, started at 10:50 a.m. Sunday off Big Geysers Road and Geysers Resort Road, about 10 miles east of the picturesque city of Cloverdale, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said the wildfire is burning in an area scorched by the 76,067-acre Valley fire, which killed four people and consumed 1,958 structures in September 2015 in southern Lake County.
“This is definitely a region that over history has seen a lot of activity,” he said.
Later in the day, another fire erupted in the Santa Cruz Mountains, claiming at least one structure, while threatening others, authorities and local media reported.
The Loma fire began about 3 p.m. near Loma Prieta Road and Loma Chiquita Road, about 10 miles northwest of Morgan Hill, in the mountains north of Santa Cruz. By 6:30 p.m., 500 acres had burned and a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke and cinders arched into the sky.
Video footage showed flames moving toward a large, gabled home along a ridge line. Water-dropping aircraft were trying to save the structure.
Nearby, helicopters dropped red fire retardant, trying to preserve a bank of transmission towers.
Fire dangers persist across California, but the red-flag conditions are subsiding around Los Angeles.
Winds began to calm Monday afternoon, and temperatures were expected to begin a downward trend, accompanied by rising humidity.
“We’re going to see a pretty good drop [Tuesday], but it’s still going to be hot,” Seto said.
Tuesday’s high is expected to be in the 90s.
‘This time of year you get those wild swings.’ — Kathy Hoxsie, National Weather Service meteorologist