Friday, November 26, 2010

Devil Winds

I keep thinking we've dodged the fire season up here this year.  But Mother Nature likes to play games with  us and the evil devil winds were blowing hard again last weekend.  Is there no end to them?

Known as the Santa Ana's, their name is more likely to be a derivation of Vientas de Satan or winds of Satan - Satana's.  But as we have a city here in Orange County called Santa Ana it's become the pronunciation.  So Santa Anas they are.

The fact is that normally at a very warm time of the year, usually in the autumn, the winds blow back to front - i.e. from the east to the west rather than from the Pacific.  After long hot summers these winds dry things even more and fan flames that crop up.  The winds also seem to drive certain people crazy, and that includes arsonists.  But the winds this year are late and coming from the cold interior so maybe we can escape after all.

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