Strong winds bring chilly temps, potential fire danger across much of the Southland

Leanne Suter Image
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Strong winds bring potential fire danger to SoCal
Strong Santa Ana winds began blowing through most of Southern California Wednesday night as rain and chilly temps also hit the area.

BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) -- Strong Santa Ana winds continued to blow through most of Southern California on Thursday morning as a red flag warning and wind advisory remained in effect.

The gusty winds brought cold temperatures, but fire officials still warned about the potential fire danger.

MORE: Southern California weather forecast

"Mother nature is not helping us out," said Battalion Chief Raymond Mitchison, adding that the region has experience "nonstop fire wind" for the past three weeks.

A wind advisory for L.A. and Ventura counties is scheduled to expire at 3 p.m. Thursday. A red flag warning will be in place until 10 a.m. Friday.

In addition to the wild weather, nearly 4,000 customers were temporarily without power in the Hollywood and Brentwood areas Wednesday night.

The outage in Hollywood, which affected about 2,100 customers, happened around 8:30 p.m. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews were on scene to restore electricity. The utility company said it was unclear what caused the outage.

Power was also out for about 1,700 customers in Brentwood. The outage was caused by a wire that was down, according to LADWP. Crews were on scene working to repair the damage and get power back on.

Power was restored to all customers in both areas overnight, according to the utility.

It was unclear if the outages were caused by the high winds.

Local freeways are expected to be jammed this week as millions of Southern Californians travel for the holidays.