Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Guides

Does Climate Change Make the Santa Ana Winds Worse?

The legendary winter gusts have long freaked out Angelenos.

The Santa Ana winds.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, NASA Earth Observatory

“It is the season of suicide and divorce and prickly dread, wherever the wind blows,” the great Los Angeles chronicler Joan Didion once wrote of the Santa Ana winds. It also happens to be the season of wildfires. The winds “bedeviled” efforts to fight the deadly Woolsey fire in 2018 and created “dangerous conditions” when they whipped the nearly 20,000-acre Mountain fire in Ventura County this past fall. And they were blowing, too, when a spark of unknown origin ignited the now 23,000 acres of wildfire burning through the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Though steeped in mystery and superstition (writers call them the “devil winds”), the Santa Ana winds are common in Los Angeles during this time of year. (Scientists call them simply “offshore winds.”) The phenomenon is caused by winter’s cold, dry air becoming lodged in the bowl of the Great Basin, where it forms a high-pressure area. That clockwise-moving air wants to escape, and it does so by rushing down and south through the mountain passes to the low-pressure area on the coast: Los Angeles.

The wind can pick up a lot of speed — on Wednesday morning, gusts topped 100 miles per hour in the San Gabriel Mountains. It can also become drier and warmer — by as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit — as it rushes through the passes toward the coast, which is what gives the Santa Anas their signature warmth, which so many find disquieting.

What makes the Santa Ana winds happening now unique?

For one thing, the current Santa Anas are on the upper end of the spectrum for velocity, which is part of why they have such a significant impact — and cause firefighters so much trouble. For another, there is a “rare placement of upper-level jet stream winds” giving the system a more northerly flow as opposed to the usual north-easterly orientation, Scott Capps, an atmospheric scientist and the head of Atmospheric Data Solutions, a forecasting firm, told me in an email. As a result, “many areas that are typically not impacted by Santa Ana winds were impacted.”

Does climate change affect the Santa Anas?

“Logically, it makes sense that climate change will impact the frequency and characteristics of [the Santa Anas],” Capps told me. However, “due to the complexity of the environment, we cannot blame one single factor for any extreme weather event.” The more obvious connection between the L.A. fires and climate change is the lack of precipitation during what is supposed to be the region’s wet season; some parts of southern California have received just 10% of their normal rainfall since October, making the area ripe for a fire.

Scientists used to think that inland warming would reduce the cold weather-related high pressure in the Great Basin and weaken the Santa Anas. While it does appear that so-called “cold” Santa Anas — caused by air in the Great Basin that is so cold initially that it’s still chilly when it reaches L.A., and which account for about a third of all Santa Anas — are becoming less frequent, the more traditional “warm” winds that are associated with wildfires don’t actually seem to bear out this hypothesis. Instead, they “are spread uniformly over the seven decades of record,” the authors of a 2021 study wrote.

If climate change is doing anything to warm or accelerate Santa Anas, the data would appear to suggest“an increasing potential of warmer and drier [Santa Ana winds] to dry out coastal vegetation and, particularly in anomalously dry winters, enhance the coastal wildfire season even into spring,” the authors went on.

While it’s far too soon to link the California disaster to climate change, the study’s authors now seem prescient: dry vegetation and an unusually dry winter both go far in explaining why this week’s fires are so destructive.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Energy

AM Briefing: An Energy Smorgasbord

On a new report from the Energy Institute, high-stakes legislating, and accelerating nuclear development

Global Energy Use Smashes Records Across the Board
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Monsoon rains hit the southwestern U.S., with flash floods in Roswell, New Mexico, and flooding in El Paso, Texas • The Forsyth Fire in Utah has spread to 9,000 acres and is only 5% contained • While temperatures are falling into the low 80s in much of the Northeast, a high of 96 degrees Fahrenheit is forecast for Washington, D.C., where Republicans in the Senate seek to finish their work on the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”

THE TOP FIVE

1. The world is using a lot of energy — of every kind

The world used more of just about every kind of energy source in 2024, including coal, oil, gas, renewables, hydro, and nuclear, according to the annual Statistical Review of World Energy, released by the Energy Institute. Here are some of the key numbers from the report:

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Carbon Removal

Is It Too Soon for Ocean-Based Carbon Credits?

The science is still out — but some of the industry’s key players are moving ahead regardless.

Pouring a substance into water.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The ocean is by far the world’s largest carbon sink, capturing about 30% of human-caused CO2 emissions and about 90% of the excess heat energy from said emissions. For about as long as scientists have known these numbers, there’s been intrigue around engineering the ocean to absorb even more. And more recently, a few startups have gotten closer to making this a reality.

Last week, one of them got a vote of confidence from leading carbon removal registry Isometric, which for the first time validated “ocean alkalinity enhancement” credits sold by the startup Planetary — 625.6 to be exact, representing 625.6 metric tons of carbon removed. No other registry has issued credits for this type of carbon removal.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Climate

AM Briefing: Heat for the History Books

On mercury rising, climate finance, and aviation emissions

The June Heat Dome Is Shattering Temperature Records
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Tropical Storm Andrea has become the first named Atlantic storm of 2025 • Hundreds of thousands are fleeing their homes in southwest China as heavy rains cause rivers to overflow • It’s hot and humid in New York’s Long Island City neighborhood, where last night New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani delivered his victory speech after defeating former governor and longtime party power broker Andrew Cuomo in the race’s Democratic primary.

THE TOP FIVE

1. June heat wave smashes temperature records

The brutal heat dome baking the eastern half of the United States continues today. Cooler weather is in the forecast for tomorrow, but this heat wave has broken a slew of temperature records across multiple states this week:

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow