Powerful Santa Ana winds packing gusts up to 80 mph are sweeping toward more than 20 million people in Southern California, with blackouts and wildfire danger expected through the weekend.
Forecasters say the dry blasts, long known as “devil winds”, will hit hardest from Thursday through the weekend, peaking Friday across a stretch of counties from Los Angeles to San Diego.
The National Weather Service has put most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties under a Red Flag Warning and is telling residents to brace for possible blackouts lasting through midnight Saturday. Heat into the 90s is riding in with the gusts, the second mid-October heat wave in the region.
Daily Mail reporting lays out the stakes: winds strong enough to topple trees and power lines, widespread outage risk, and fire weather that can turn a spark into a fast-moving blaze.
Santa Ana winds form when high pressure builds over Northern California, Nevada, and Utah. The air then races south and west, heating and drying as it drops from the mountains toward the Pacific Coast. The pattern takes its name from Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County.
Gusts are forecast to reach 80 mph and to surpass 75 mph, the same wind-speed threshold as a Category 1 hurricane. AccuWeather said the strongest winds could potentially hit 90 mph. On Friday, widespread areas between San Diego and Los Angeles are expected to see 60 mph gusts. Metro Los Angeles may get a slightly less intense punch, but nearby communities are already drying out fast.
National Weather Service officials put the hazard in plain terms.
"Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are expected. Travel will be difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles."
Homes can take damage. High-profile trucks can be blown off roadways. Power lines and equipment become ignition sources when the air is this dry.
The Red Flag Warning runs from Thursday morning until Saturday at 8 p.m. local time (11 p.m. ET). It covers most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and flags conditions “favorable for extreme fire behavior which would threaten life and property.”
Zones of elevated danger include the Santa Monica Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains, Ventura County mountains, Antelope Valley foothills, Santa Clarita Valley, San Fernando Valley, the Malibu Coast, Calabasas and Agoura Hills, and nearby valleys and coastal areas. Orange, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties sit in the broader wind field as well.
AccuWeather spelled out why the lights may go out on purpose.
"Utilities may temporarily shut off electricity in areas facing dangerous fire weather to reduce the risk of power equipment sparking wildfires."
Those shutoffs are tied to fire-start risk over the next three days. Utilities are not named in the forecast material, but the message is clear: cutting power is a last-resort tool when wind and dryness make equipment a hazard.
Southern California has already seen what this pattern can do. In January 2025, Santa Ana conditions, winds of 60 to 100 mph, very low humidity, and local drought, were connected to the Eaton, Hughes, and Palisades Fires. Those blazes destroyed nearly 50,000 acres across Los Angeles County and reportedly killed at least 30 people.
The same wind family has already been linked to one blaze this month. Forecast offices are not treating the coming days as routine weather. They are treating them as a repeat test of dry hills, crowded valleys, and a power grid that can spark when gusts arrive.
Temperatures in Los Angeles and San Diego are expected to climb into the 90s. Downtown Los Angeles is in line for that jump as the heat wave builds. Hot air plus hurricane-strength gusts is the classic recipe for rapid fire spread if anything lights.
The National Weather Service is urging people across the region to get ready for blackouts through midnight Saturday. Officials also want extreme caution with anything that can start a fire, outdoor burning, equipment sparks, vehicles, and discarded cigarettes.
Anyone living near wildland areas is being told to be ready to evacuate quickly if a fire starts. That is not abstract advice in a landscape that lost tens of thousands of acres and dozens of lives earlier this year.
Travel will be rough, especially for high-profile vehicles. Downed trees and lines can block roads while crews race to keep new ignitions from taking off. The warning window is short and specific: Thursday morning to Saturday evening for the Red Flag, with the worst winds centered on Friday.
More than 20 million people sit in the path. The winds are a forecast, not a guarantee of disaster. But the physics are simple. Dry air, strong gusts, dense communities, and a power system that can throw sparks leave little margin when a heat wave and Santa Anas arrive together.
Californians already paid a deadly price for this kind of weather in January. Clear warnings only matter if people and systems treat them like the real thing.
