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The weather pattern that will bring the coldest temperatures of the year to the Eastern US will also prevent rainfall and potentially bring another Santa Ana Wind event to Southern California next week.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles warns of a 60% chance of red flag warnings being issued on Monday and an 80% chance of red flag warnings being issued on Tuesday.
The greatest chance remains that these winds will be between 30-50 mph, and while these gusts are lower than previous events, dry air and the rapidly increasing drought could cause any new fires to quickly spread out of control.
This upcoming weather pattern will prevent rainfall across Southern California, which has seen almost no rainfall since the start of October. Los Angeles has only seen 0.03 inches of rainfall since October 1, a far cry from the more than 5 inches they should receive in that time period.
Los Angeles has also seen no rainfall in January, which is usually the city’s second wettest month after February. The Climate Prediction Center’s February outlook isn’t giving promising news for Southern California, only calling for normal amounts of rainfall for the month. The city needs significant rounds of rainfall to climb out of this rainfall deficit.
With the series of Santa Ana winds further drying out Southern California and a lack of rainfall ongoing for the region, drought across the region has increased significantly. With the latest drought numbers released today, nearly all of Southern California is in severe drought, or a level 2 of 4.
Los Angeles County is now 90% in severe drought when just two weeks ago when last week nearly 60% of the county was in severe drought. Just two weeks ago, no severe drought was reported in the county.
