Santa Anas are catabatic winds that in Greek mean that they flow downhill, arise at higher altitudes and blow towards sea level.
Santa Ana
winds originate from high-pressure air masses over the Great Basin and the Upper Mojave Desert. In short, they are caused by high pressure over the Mohave Desert and the Great Basin, along with overall low pressure in Southern California. Hot, dry, high-pressure air seeks to go to low-pressure areas.Normally, this would be a fairly quiet exchange, but because of all the mountains that surround Southern California, air movements are channeled through the three main mountain passes: Soledad, Cajón and San Gorgonio. This channeling action creates huge wind currents that result in those fierce and dry gusts that we know very well in our area. The Santa Ana winds are warm, dry winds that blow during the months of the cold season (October to March). They form when high pressure builds up over the Great Basin, the geographical area bordering the Rocky Mountains to the east and Sierra Nevada to the west, and when low pressure settles on the California coast.
Under certain weather conditions here in Southern California, we have strong north and northeast winds. They are more common during the summer months, but can occur in any season of the year. These winds are strong, windy and very dry. They seem to originate in the upper atmosphere above the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to gain momentum as they descend into warm valleys and desert areas, where they rise to higher altitudes as warm air, sucking in more wind later.
The Santa Ana winds are strong, dry winds on a downward slope in Southern California and northern Baja California. They are caused by clockwise circulation around areas of high surface pressure east of the Sierra Nevada in the Greater Basin region. These marine winds occur mainly in the fall, but they can also arise during other seasons. Southern California Fire Hazard Map Showing Santa Ana Winds Direction with Lines.
Courtesy of NOAA Office of Coastal Management. Santa Ana winds or Santana winds, most common in late summer and early fall, begin with dry air moving from the interior of the U.S. UU. As this air flows into the Los Angeles Basin through the low hollows of the mountains (particularly Cajon Pass at the eastern end of the San Gabriel Mountains and Soledad Pass south of Palmdale), it compresses and heats about five degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet it descends.
Although these winds are much colder high in the mountains, they can become warm and dry and take on the force of a gale as they descend into the Los Angeles Basin. They are often the source of air turbulence for planes approaching Los Angeles International Airport. The original spelling of the name of the winds is not clear, not to mention the origin. Although the winds today are commonly called Winds of Santa Ana or Santa Anas, many argue that the original name is Vientos de Santana (or, more correctly in Spanish, Winds of Satan).
Both versions of the name have been used. The name Santanas Winds is said to date back to Spanish California when the winds were called Satan's Hot Breath because of its warmth, a vision favored, among others, by the late television meteorologist Dr. George Fischbeck (who was said to refer to winds, in his popular way, such as the Santa Annies). The reference book Los Angeles A to Z (by Leonard & Dale Pitt), on the other hand, like many others, attributes the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County as the origin of the name Santa Ana Winds, thus arguing the term Santa Anas.
Some of the earliest stories attributed the bed of the Santa Ana River that crosses the canyon as the source of the winds. Another account placed the origin of Santa Ana Winds with an Associated Press correspondent stationed in Santa Ana who, in a 1901 office, mistakenly began using Santa Ana Winds instead of Santana Winds. Today, Southern Californians are more likely to use Santa Ana winds, probably due to their common use by weather reporters and meteorologists. The Los Angeles Almanac, however, believes that the Winds of Santa Ana and the Winds of Santana are an old but probably misinterpretation, misinterpretation or mispronunciation of what the winds were originally called.
These super-hot winds are too widespread to realistically attribute only to the Santa Ana Canyon (winds vary along Southern California and Northern Baja California) and Santana doesn't really mean anything in Spanish, except being a surname. Rather, like the hot winds of Diablo or the Winds of the Devil in northern California, these winds (the “hot breath of Satan”) were probably originally named in Spanish after the dark lord himself, positioning the Winds of Satan or Winds of Satan closer to the historical term. Special Credit for Research Assistance from Nancy Smith, Metropolitan Cooperative Library System Reference Center Librarian, Los Angeles Public Library. Also, thanks to Don Finer for his contribution and to Delia Moya Thornton for keeping our Spanish on point.
Top · Cite Us · Visitor Agreement · Privacy · About · Site Map · Contact. The reporter was probably assigned to the story because in 1933, Santa Anas reached 60 miles per hour, destroyed ships, uncovered buildings and relocated about 14 million tons of dust. According to the most common and accepted explanation, the winds derive their name from the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, south of Los Angeles and near the city of Santa Ana. In 1981, Times writer Jack Smith wrote an article titled Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Ana that directly addressed the naming controversy.
However, the fact that the Santa Ana winds bore the name of their city did not please the members of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Santa Ana, and they fought for years to change the name. The Santa Ana Winds or Santana Winds, most common in late summer and early fall, begin with dry air moving from inside the U. It's not uncommon for the air associated with Santa Anas to have single-digit humidity values (anything below 10% is considered completely dry). An Orange County historian named Chris Jepsen discovered the nugget that in 1922, a Santa Ana man using the name Cotton Mather firmly argued that “Santana” was a Native American term for “windstorm.”.
The writer acknowledges that the winds take the name of Santa Ana because of its passage through the canyon of the mountain of Santa Ana, which has a shape very similar to a large funnel, but insists that it is not a Santa Ana wind more than a wind from Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside or San Diego. Gettemy reported that historians do not support this theory on the basis that a Santa Ana wind would not have been important to qualify a name, among other reasons. And it starts running in all directions, the Santa Anas also go deep into Southern California in other places as well. So invent some personal mythologies, such as Santa Ana, which was so strong that it tore the Los Angeles cap off your head and flew it to Surf City.
Southeast of the Los Angeles Basin, a swirl of dust, probably swept across the Banning Pass, curves into the ocean near Dana Point. The poor Chamber of Commerce; a couple of years later, and again six decades later, the meteorological office affirmed and reaffirmed that “Santa Ana was the sanctioned name. The name was even amplified in 1901, after a Christmas Eve windstorm caused such a disaster that an Associated Press reporter made it national news under the name “Winds of Santa Ana.”. .
.
