Santa Ana winds

[Judith]

Not to detract from the seriousness of Tom of Cambrias posts on drogues. . .but mention of the Santa Ana winds brought back memories.

Growing up in Southern California, I experienced those winds every spring and fall as the air temperature changed. When I was small--as in "VERY small", maybe 7-8--the game was to turn with the wind to one's back ('running' ) and see how completely one could relax back into it and still be supported. Sometimes, we could go completely limp and be held up at what felt like a 45º angle. The tricky part was that the winds could start and stop quickly: anticipation was everything, to avoid falling over backwards.

At the time, girls were expected to wear skirts or dresses to school. But the playground was a vast expanse of dirt and sand; when the Santa Anas blew, bare legs were sandblasted. It stung like crazy, so all the girls would drop into a squat, protecting legs with their skirts. The strengthening and waning of the wind could be gauged by little girls popping up and down all over the playground.

I've heard/read this is the same phenomenom as the 'mistral' winds in Spain and the 'siroccos' in Africa. Also, that the air, for whatever reason, is quite ionized, reputedly making people jumpy and irritable. Raymond Chandler has a wonderful story, "Red Dust" (I think), that starts by describing the Santa Anas and their effect on people, which ends with "and housewives feel the keen edge of their carving knives with their thumbs and eye their husbands' necks. . ." Yikes!

Nostalgia: interesting to look back on

[Warren Kaplan]

Judith,

I remember the Santa Ana winds when I lived in San Diego from 1975 to 1980. I think what I remember most about them ( being originally and now from the east coast) was the heat and the dryness of them. Winds blowing 40 mph or more with 5% relative humidity at 100 degrees Farenheit in the inland valleys of San Diego (not so much along the immediate coast.)

You didn't realize you were sweating in all that heat because with that wind, heat and humidity combination the sweat evapoarted immediately!! But we knew it had to be so because my family used to go through a big 5 gallon bottle of drinking water a day easily just sitting around in the back yard during a Santa Ana. If you weren't constantly drinking water you'd shrivel up like a prune from dehydration in short order!

It was just incredible how dry everyone stayed even though we knew we were perspiring!!

[Steve Laume]

Santa Ana Winds, bottled water companies love em, anti perspirant companies hate em, and school girls in skirts just endure them like everything else they have to put up with.

[Tom in Cambria]

This is kind of off the point, but you've raised the old debate about whether it is "Santa Ana" or "Santana". There is some information on the internet, but as I understand it "Santana" was the Spanish word for those winds before the Yankees came. After WWII a lot of Easterners came to Calif and they weren't as familiar with Spanish words as the locals. If you lived in Los Angeles and the winds came out of the East, they seemed to come from the direction of the city of Santa Ana. The city of Santa Ana was named after a Mexican general of that name and had nothing to do with wind. People assumed the winds were named after the city with a similar sounding name because they saw it on road maps. Weather people (often immigrants from the midwest) on TV called it "Santa Ana" also which confirmed the misconception. If you live north of Los Angeles the Santana winds don't seem to come from the direction of the city of Santa Ana, yet any strong, dry wind from the East (across the Mojave desert) tends to be called a "Santa Ana." This is even farther off the point, and a real stretch, but since I mentioned World War II, let's not forget this is the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Hats off to the guys who fought and died there.

[Oswego John]

Tom,

You missed your calling as a writer of the most interesting topics. I shall never forget the story you sent to me about your journey through the Bahamas. Pure local color, simply put and to the point.

Best regards,
O J

[SPIBob]

I lived in San Diego in the 60's and again in the 80's and went through quite a few Santa Anas. At least that's what the locals called them, rightly or wrongly. It was explained to me that the name came from a Mexican general of the same name who had a penchant for burning down villages, camps, etc., which of course would produce hot, dry winds in the vicinity of the fires. Again, rightly or wrongly. But hey, a strong, hot, dry wind by any other name is still..........

A couple of times these winds fanned wildfires inland of S.D. and blew heavy, dark smoke and ash/soot over us. It was as eerie of a scene as I can recall. Strong, hot, dry winds and darkness at noon!

[Gary M]

ZackLee is docked in Marina Del Rey, in Southern California. When the Santa Ana Winds pick up it can mean:

1) Its hard to get out of my "up wind" slip because the wind is pushing me back into it.

2) The Fire Department is on alert and is placing observers at possible fire points. Maybe even spreading resources around.

3) A great sail up the coast. Since the wind is coming from land it has no time to build up a swell even though the wind is pretty strong.

4) No wind as the off shore and on shore winds meet right at the marina and become no wind!

5) The Ithmus anchorage at Catalina Island is all of a sudden an unprotected anchorage and if you are there, you will wish you weren't as the swells built up from the mainland come crashing through. I've got some vivid memories!

6) Sailing out of the main channel of the marina on a beam reach or even dead down wind instead of tacking to reach the Pacific Ocean.

7) Confused sailors sail too far off shore and way underestimate how much time is needed to get back to the dock since they have to tack up wind to get home.

8) Inexperienced sailors are confused about their sail set because instead of trimming sails to the wind, they have gotten into the habit of trimming sails to their location in the channel, since normally the wind is always South Westerly.

9) Airplanes at the neighboring LAX start to land from the sea instead of the land so they are coming in against the wind. If you live in Inglewood, the normal flight path, you feel a very strange lack of jet noise.

10) A brown smog line from inland cities blows out to the ocean for rare sunset colors.

Gary

[Tom in Cambria]

This from googling up "Santana Winds":

The original spelling of the of name of the winds is unclear, not to mention the origin. Although the winds have been commonly called Santa Ana Winds or Santa Anas, many argue that the original name is Santana Winds or Santanas. Both versions of the name have been used. The name Santana Winds is said to be traced to Spanish California when the winds were called Devil Winds due to their heat. The reference book Los Angeles A to Z (by Leonard & Dale Pitt), credits the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County as the origin of the name Santa Ana Winds, thereby arguing for the term Santa Anas. This might be supported by early accounts which attributed the Santa Ana riverbed running through 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 mistakenly began using Santa Ana Winds instead of Santana Winds in a 1901 dispatch.