A cold front that brought low temperatures and high winds — causing scores of power outages —has moved out of the Los Angeles region, but windy conditions are expected to continue Monday night and Tuesday morning, with the winds shifting as a mild Santa Ana condition moves in, according to the National Weather Service.
Many areas will experience a decrease in wind speeds, except for areas with an exposure to the Santa Ana condition's northeast winds, where wind speeds may actually be higher, the NWS said.
"Northeast winds will diminish during the afternoon Tuesday," the NWS said in a forecast statement. "Most areas should see a significant warm-up from [Monday] as the cold air continues to exit the area."
Power outages
As of Monday evening, local electrical power providers were continuing to respond to numerous calls of power outages.
A California Edison spokesperson said about 12,000 people had been without power, including two large outages in Seal Beach and Alhambra affecting 2,165 and 4,242 customers respectively. As of 3:30 p.m., 8,200 of its customers were without power.
"[It's a] combination of mostly downed power lines, trees being blown into power lines," SoCal Edison spokesman Paul Netter said mid-Monday. "Occasionally, it can be a pole being blown down. But usually it's either power lines or trees or vegetation blown into them."
Netter said power to Alhambra customers was expected to be restored by Monday evening, but that the Seal Beach outage might take longer to restore.
"The wind is going to subside at some point this afternoon," Netter said. "So we're going to deal with it accordingly. But we expect and hope to get people restored as the day goes on."
You can check SoCal Edison's updated map of power outages in the L.A. area on its website.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported that as of 4:30 p.m. Monday about 5,700 of the utility's 1.4 million electric customers were without power. LADWP crews had restored service to more than 28,900 customers who had lost power overnight or throughout the day.
You can see a list of all communities affected and the updated map of outages on the LADWP site.
The city of L.A.'s fire department said it received nearly 400 911 calls by 8 a.m. Monday. Firefighters rescued an individual who was trapped in a vehicle on Broadway in South Los Angeles after winds knocked down a large tree. That person was sent to a local hospital.
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"Sudden gusts can really catch individuals off guard no matter how experienced of a driver they are," LAFD's Erik Scott said. "It's important to expect sudden gusts at any time but particularly on open stretches of road or when we pass a bridge or even gaps and hedges, and certainly when you overtake a high sided vehicle."
Winds to continue
National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Rourke said the windy weather will last through Tuesday, but temperatures should rise.
A winter weather advisory is in effect for northern slopes of the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountain ranges, Rourke said, where gusts could reach 65 miles per hour and areas above 4500 feet could see 3-7 inches of snow.
"This all results from the cold air spilling into the air behind yesterday's cold front," Rourke said, "which brought us a few sprinkles in the L.A. area and rain to points further north."
The latest statement from the NWS calls for the strongest winds to be in the Los Angeles County and Ventura County mountains "but we'll see some of that surfacing down into the valleys and coast later tonight and into Tuesday. Places where advisories have ended may need them again later tonight into Tuesday."
The statement also said to "Look for a pretty decent Santa Ana wind event Tuesday morning," with Tuesday temperatures in the Valleys 10 degrees higher than today.
Impacts around the state, region
The Associated Press reported a tornado touched down Sunday in the town of Denair near Modesto, tearing roofing and walls from homes, and knocking down trees and power lines. There were no reports of injuries.
One witness posted a video of the twister to Facebook (Warning: the video contains explicit language):
This story has been updated.