Supernatural

A 48 mph Santa Ana pummeled Cat Beach, creating sand dunes around parked cars. Photo GK.

Ol' Santana ain't got nuthin' on the Santa Ana that cranked out of southwest Utah and opened a can of good ol' fashioned Whupass (TM) on southern California Sunday. The beating mainly took the form of wildfires caused by downed power lines, which then seemingly burned half of Malibu, along with various other parts of the Southland area. The fires were aided by the 5-7% humidity of the wind. From a mothing standpoint, it was a total washout, with gusts to 48mph on the breakwater outside Long Beach. Winds in the mountains were recorded at speeds up to 111mph.

Strangely enough, there was virtually no wind in Seal Beach when I went into a kite shop for some supplies, but when I came out fifteen minutes later there was amazing breeze and the tiny channel between Seal Beach and Long Beach was pure roiling spindrift. The wind was puffy but remarkably strong and it stayed that way for several hours, showing no signs of backing off as we patiently walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch, came back, hung out by the cars letting our ears fill up with sand, and finally rolled out of the parking lot and drove home without untying a single line from the trailer.

More Mothing next week, and more info on the fires HERE