SAN DIEGO — Santa Ana winds uprooted trees around the county Thursday. Dr. Pat Abbott is a Geology Professor at San Diego State University. He says these powerful winds race from the mountains to the coast.
"High-pressure air comes down and warms. It hits the mountains, and flows down slope all the way here to the pacific coast," said Dr. Abbott. "They're so strong because they begin as descending air. Then when they come from on top of the Rocky Mountains and our own mountains they travel downslope. Just like your car out of gear or whatever, you're coasting. You're flowing faster as you go down the topography."
This comes after massive rainfall this month, putting our trees at risk.
"Saturated soil behaves differently than we're normally used to," said Dr. Abbott. "It's stunning how for large trees even, how many of them don't have deep extensive roots. This is the time for them to fall. Wet soil, high winds."
And while this wind knocked down several trees this week, it has another effect on our coastline.
"Santa Ana winds are dry, low humidity," said Dr. Abbott. "They dry out the soil. They dry out the vegetation."
So they can protect our coastal cliffs from devastating collapses. San Diego County has seen several this month, including one caught on camera on Black's Beach.
"The trigger, the straw to break the camel's back to have so many of them there is because the ground is so saturated," said Dr. Abbott. So for us now, to start pulling some of that water out of the soil with our dry winds … that's starting to decrease the probability of sea cliff collapses."
Experts say you should take care on the roads while we see high winds, especially in the mountains.
