The Santa Ana winds, occasionally referred to as the devil winds, are strong, extremely dry

katabatic wind A katabatic wind (named ) is a downslope wind caused by the flow of an elevated, high-density air mass into a lower-density air mass below under the force of gravity. The spelling catabatic is also used. Since air density is strongly dependent o ...

s that originate inland and affect

coastal A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

and northern

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

. They originate from cool, dry high-pressure

air mass In meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and humidity. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adapt to the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to ...

es in the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

. Santa Ana winds are known for the hot, dry weather that they bring in

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

(often the hottest of the year), but they can also arise at other times of the year. They often bring the lowest relative humidities of the year to coastal Southern California, and "beautifully clear skies". These low humidities, combined with the warm, compressionally-heated air mass, plus high wind speeds, create critical fire weather conditions, and fan destructive

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

s. Typically, about 10 to 25 Santa Ana wind events occur annually. A Santa Ana wind can blow from one to seven days, with an average wind event lasting three days. The longest recorded Santa Ana event was a 14-day wind in November 1957. Damage from high winds is most common along the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino and Riversid ...

basin in Orange County, the Santa Clara River basin in Ventura and

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

, through Newhall Pass into the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

of Los Angeles County, and through the Cajon Pass into

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of th ...

near San Bernardino, Fontana, and Chino. The Santa Ana Winds drive most wildfires in

. Most recently, the winds are known as the force behind the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, having gone on and off for 24 days, starting on January 6th, 2025 and ending on January 31st.

Description

Meteorology

The Santa Anas are

s (Greek for "flowing downhill") arising in higher altitudes and blowing down towards sea level. The

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

defines Santa Ana winds as "a weather condition n southern Californiain which strong, hot, dust-bearing winds descend to the Pacific Coast around Los Angeles from inland desert regions".

Santa Ana winds originate from high-pressure airmasses over the

and upper

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

. Any

low-pressure area In meteorology, a low-pressure area (LPA), low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. It is the opposite of a high-pressure area. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with incle ...

over the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, can change the stability of the Great Basin High, causing a

pressure gradient In hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, the pressure gradient (typically of air but more generally of any fluid) is a physical quantity that describes in which direction and at what rate the pressure increases the most rapidly around a particular locat ...

that turns the synoptic scale winds southward down the eastern side of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

and into the Southern California region. According to one meteorology journal, "a popular rule of thumb used by forecasters is to measure the difference in pressure between the

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

and

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

; a difference of 9 millibars (0.27

inches of mercury Inch of mercury (inHg, ″Hg, or in) is a non- SI unit of measurement for pressure. It is used for barometric pressure in weather reports, refrigeration and aviation in the United States. It is the pressure exerted by a column of mercury in ...

) is enough to support a Santa Ana event." Dry air flows outward in a clockwise spiral from the high pressure center. This dry airmass sweeps across the deserts of eastern California toward the coast, and encounters the towering

Transverse Ranges The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of Southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa Ba ...

, which separate coastal Southern California from the deserts. The airmass, flowing from high pressure in the Great Basin to a low pressure center off the coast, takes the path of least resistance by channeling through the mountain passes to the lower coastal elevations, as the low pressure area off the coast pulls the airmass offshore. Mountain passes which channel these winds include the Soledad Pass, the Cajon Pass, and the

San Gorgonio Pass The San Gorgonio Pass, or Banning Pass, is a elevation Gap (landform), gap on the rim of the Great Basin between the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south. The pass was formed by the San Andreas Faul ...

, all well known for increasing Santa Anas as they are funneled through. This increase in speed, often to near- gale force or above is due to the Venturi effect of the passes. At the same time, as the air descends from higher elevation to lower, the temperature and barometric pressure increase

adiabatically Adiabatic (from ''Gr.'' ἀ ''negative'' + διάβασις ''passage; transference'') refers to any process that occurs without heat transfer. This concept is used in many areas of physics and engineering. Notable examples are listed below. A ...

, warming about 5 °F for each 1,000 feet it descends (1 °C for each 100 m). Relative humidity decreases with the increasing temperature. The air has already been dried by orographic lift before reaching the Great Basin, as well as by subsidence from the upper atmosphere, so this additional warming often causes relative humidity to fall below 10 percent. The end result is a strong, warm, and very dry wind blowing out of the bottom of mountain passes into the valleys and coastal plain. These warm, dry winds, which can easily exceed , can severely exacerbate brush or forest fires, especially under drought conditions. During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the deserts, with the Southern California coastal region reaching some of its highest annual temperatures in autumn rather than summer. Frigid, dry arctic air from Canada tends to create the most intense Santa Ana winds. SantaAnaWinds QuikSCAT 2002feb

While the Santa Anas are katabatic, they are not Föhn winds. These result from precipitation on the windward side of a mountain range which releases latent heat into the atmosphere which is then warmer on the leeward side (e.g., the Chinook or the original Föhn). If the Santa Anas are strong, the usual day-time

sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a wind that blows in the afternoon from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is a wind that blows in the night from a landmass toward or onto a large ...

may not arise, or develop weak later in the day because the strong offshore desert winds oppose the on-shore sea breeze. At night, the Santa Ana Winds merge with the

land breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a wind that blows in the afternoon from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is a wind that blows in the night from a landmass toward or onto a large ...

blowing from land to sea and strengthen because the inland desert cools more than the ocean due to differences in the

heat capacity Heat capacity or thermal capacity is a physical property of matter, defined as the amount of heat to be supplied to an object to produce a unit change in its temperature. The SI unit of heat capacity is joule per kelvin (J/K). Heat capacity is a ...

and because there is no competing sea breeze. Santa Ana winds are associated in the public mind with dry hot weather, but cold Santa Anas not only exist but have a strong correlation with the highest "regionally averaged" wind speeds.

Regional impacts

Santa Ana winds often bring the lowest

relative humidities Relative may refer to: General use *Kinship and family, the principle binding the most basic social units of society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be ''relatives''. Philosophy *Relativism, the concept t ...

of the year to coastal Southern California. These low humidities, combined with the warm, compressionally-heated

, plus the high wind speeds, create critical fire weather conditions. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness accompanying the Santa Ana winds turns the

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...

into explosive fuel feeding the infamous

s for which the region is known. Although the winds often have a destructive nature, they have some benefits as well. They cause cold water to rise from below the surface layer of the ocean, bringing with it many nutrients that ultimately benefit local fisheries. As the winds blow over the ocean,

sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (or ocean surface temperature) is the ocean temperature, temperature of ocean water close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies in the literature and in practice. It is usually between and below the sea ...

s drop about 4 °C (7 °F), indicating the

upwelling Upwelling is an physical oceanography, oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water from deep water towards the ocean surface. It replaces the warmer and usually nutrient-depleted sur ...

Chlorophyll Chlorophyll is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words (, "pale green") and (, "leaf"). Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy ...

concentrations in the surface water go from negligible, in the absence of winds, to very active at more than 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter in the presence of the winds.

Local maritime impacts

During the Santa Ana winds, large ocean waves can develop. These waves come from a northeasterly direction toward the normally sheltered sides of the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

, including commonly visited Catalina and Santa Cruz islands. Normally well-sheltered harbors and anchorages such as Avalon and Two Harbors can develop high surf and strong winds that can tear boats from their moorings. During Santa Ana conditions, it is advised that boaters moor on the Southern side of affected islands or return to the mainland.

Related phenomena

Santa Ana fog

A ''Santa Ana fog'' is a derivative phenomenon in which a ground fog settles in coastal

at the end of a Santa Ana wind episode. When Santa Ana conditions prevail, with winds in the lower of the atmosphere from the north through east, the air over the coastal basin is extremely dry, and this dry air extends out over offshore waters of the Pacific Ocean. When the Santa Ana winds cease, the cool and moist

marine layer A marine layer is an air mass that develops over the surface of a large body of water, such as an ocean or large lake, in the presence of a Inversion (meteorology), temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling ...

may re-form rapidly over the ocean if conditions are right. The air in the marine layer becomes very moist and very low clouds or fog occurs.Leipper, D. F., Fog development at San Diego, California, J. Mar. Research, 7, 337–346, 1948.Leipper, D. F., Fog on the United States West Coast: a review. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. 75, 229–240. If wind gradients turn on-shore with enough strength, this sea fog is blown onto the coastal areas. This marks a sudden and surprising transition from the hot, dry Santa Ana conditions to cool, moist, and gray marine weather, as the Santa Ana fog can blow onshore and envelop cities in as quickly as fifteen minutes. However, a true Santa Ana fog is rare, because it requires conditions conducive to rapid re-forming of the marine layer, plus a rapid and strong reversal in wind gradients from off-shore to on-shore winds. More often, the high pressure system over the Great Basin, which caused the Santa Ana conditions in the first place, is slow to weaken or move east across the United States. In this more usual case, the Santa Ana winds cease, but warm, dry conditions under a stationary air mass continue for days or even weeks after the Santa Ana wind event ends. A related phenomenon occurs when the Santa Ana condition is present but weak, allowing hot dry air to accumulate in the inland valleys that may not push all the way to sea level. Under these conditions auto commuters can drive from the San Fernando Valley where conditions are sunny and warm, over the low Santa Monica Mountains, to plunge into the cool cloudy air, low clouds, and fog characteristic of the marine air mass. This and the "Santa Ana fog" above constitute examples of an air inversion.

Sundowner winds

The similar winds in the Santa Barbara and Goleta area occur most frequently in the late spring to early summer, and are strongest at sunset, or "sundown"; hence their name: sundowner. Because high pressure areas usually migrate east, changing the pressure gradient in Southern California to the northeast, it is common for "sundowner" wind events to precede Santa Ana events by a day or two.

Historical impact

Hygrometer showing low humidity during a Santa Ana wind event

The Santa Ana winds and the accompanying raging wildfires have been a part of the ecosystem of the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east–west trending chains of mountai ...

for over 5,000 years, dating back to the earliest habitation of the region by the

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Channel Islands of California, Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . In the precolonial era, the peop ...

and Tataviam peoples. The Santa Ana winds have been recognized and reported in English-language records as a weather phenomenon in Southern California since at least the mid-nineteenth century. During the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, Commodore Robert Stockton reported that a "strange, dust-laden windstorm" arrived in the night while his troops were marching south through California in January 1847. Various episodes of hot, dry winds have been described over this history as dust storms, hurricane-force winds, and violent north-easters, damaging houses and destroying fruit orchards. Newspaper archives have many photographs of regional damage dating back to the beginnings of news reporting in Los Angeles. When the Los Angeles Basin was primarily an agricultural region, the winds were feared particularly by farmers for their potential to destroy crops. The strongest Santa Ana winds yet recorded occurred in early December 2011. An atmospheric set-up occurred that allowed the towns of Pasadena and Altadena in the San Gabriel Valley to get whipped by sustained winds at , and gusts up to . Mammoth Mountain experienced a near-record wind gust of , on December 1, 2011.

Wildfires

Because they are simultaneously "gusty" and "desiccating", the Santa Ana winds are highly associated with regional wildfire danger. The winds have been implicated in some of the area's (and even the state's) largest and deadliest

s. Major Santa Ana-fueled fires prior to 2000 included the Santiago Canyon Fire (1889), Bel Air Fire (1961), Agoura-Malibu firestorm (1978), Anaheim Fire (1982), Laguna Fire (1970), Laguna Fire (1993), and Kinneloa Fire (1993). Major Santa Ana-fueled fires from 2000 to 2019 included Cedar Fire (2003), Old Fire (2003), Esperanza Fire (2006), Witch Creek Fire (2007), October 2007 California wildfires, Tea Fire (2008), Sayre Fire (2008), Freeway Complex Fire (2008), May 2014 San Diego County wildfires, December 2017 Southern California wildfires, and the Thomas Fire (2018). Major Santa Ana-fueled fires from 2020 to present include the El Dorado Fire (2020), Bobcat Fire (2020), and Franklin Fire (2024). The Santa Ana winds heavily aggravated a series of wildfires in January 2025 including the Eaton Fire and the Palisades Fire during an exceptionally strong wind event. These fires burned through over 35,000 acres (14,163 ha) and have killed 24 people. The winds aggravating the fires reached over in some areas, with wind speeds comparable to that of a Category 1 hurricane.

Health effects

The winds carry ''

Coccidioides immitis ''Coccidioides immitis'' is a pathogenic fungus that resides in the soil in certain parts of the southwestern United States, northern Mexico, and a few other areas in the Western Hemisphere. Epidemiology ''C. immitis'', along with its relativ ...

'' and '' Coccidioides posadasii'' spores into nonendemic areas, a pathogenic fungus that causes

Coccidioidomycosis Coccidioidomycosis (, ) is a mammalian mycosis, fungal disease caused by ''Coccidioides immitis'' or ''Coccidioides posadasii''. It is commonly known as cocci, Valley fever, California fever, desert rheumatism, or San Joaquin Valley fever. Cocci ...

("Valley Fever"). Symptomatic infection (40 percent of cases) usually presents as an influenza-like illness with fever, cough, headaches, rash, and myalgia (muscle pain). Serious complications include severe pneumonia, lung nodules, and disseminated disease, where the fungus spreads throughout the body. The disseminated form of

can devastate the body, causing skin ulcers, abscesses, bone lesions, severe joint pain, heart inflammation, urinary tract problems, meningitis, and often death.

Name etymology

The name ''Santa Ana winds'' comes from the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, one of the many locations where the winds blow intensely. Santa Ana Canyon and Santa Ana River, the old Spanish land grant Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana, and the town of Santa Ana are all so named because the Portolá expedition entered the river valley on

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

's feast day in 1769. Newspaper references to the name ''Santa Ana winds'' appear as far back the 1870s and 1880s. Per the ''

Riverside Press-Enterprise ''The Press-Enterprise'' is a paid daily newspaper published by Digital First Media that serves the Inland Empire in Southern California. Headquartered in downtown Riverside, California, it is the primary newspaper for Riverside County, with h ...

'' in 2020: Principal_tracks_of_Santa_Ana_winds_with_high_barometers_over_interior_sections

The name ''Santa Ana wind'' became nationally known following a sensationalized 1901 wire story about wind damage. However because local boosters thought the association of the sometimes-destructive winds with the town would be bad for business, they began claiming that calling the "disagreeable" winds the ''Santa Ana winds'' was "both incorrect and libelous." The chamber of commerce thus began a

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...

campaign claiming the name was actually "an Indian word" from somewhere. Supposedly, in their telling, the term ''Santa Ana wind'' derived from a Native American phrase for "big wind" or "devil wind" that was then altered by

Californios Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...

into the form "Satanás" (meaning

Satan Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...

), and then still later corrupted into "Santa Ana." However, an authority on local Native American languages claims this supposed Indigenous term, "Santana" or "sandana," never existed. No evidence has ever emerged to support this explanation and it is a

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or po ...

. Another false association is that the name is a reference to General Santa Anna of Mexico and dust clouds kicked up by his cavalry horses. The ''Santa Ana Journal'' newspaper which battled for years to discourage the association between the winds and the town, published a verse with a 1935 news story on wind impacts that nodded to the "devil winds" nomenclature: "''The devil sends the naughty winds To blow the skirts on high; But God is just and sends the dust To fill the bad man's eye.''" In 1933,

Father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...

John O'Connell of

Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano () is a Spanish missions in California, Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, California, San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California, Orange County, California. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial ''The Califo ...

reported that Don Jesus Aguilar, born 1855 at Capistrano, said that in his day the winds had been called ''el viento del norte'' ("the north wind").

In popular culture

Santa Ana winds are widely believed to affect people's moods and behavior. The Santa Ana winds are commonly portrayed in fiction as being responsible for a tense, uneasy, wrathful mood among Angelenos. The winds blow things over and "make loud noises," which can set people on edge. As ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' put it in 2003, "a dry, hot Santa Ana often symbolizes an unnamable menace lying just beneath the sun-shot surface of California life." According to the book blog, the winds notably appear in Richard Henry Dana's ''

Two Years Before the Mast ''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A Two Years Before the Mast ...

'', the

Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe ( ) is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The genre originated in the 1920s, notably in '' Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiell Hammett's The Cont ...

story "Red Wind" by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

, three essays by

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

("Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream" and "Los Angeles Notebook", both included in her 1968 book '' Slouching Towards Bethlehem'', and "Fire Season", included in her 1992 book '' After Henry''), ''The Husband'' by

Dean Koontz Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as thriller (genre), suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction, Mystery fiction, mystery, and sati ...

, '' White Oleander'' by Janet Fitch, and '' Less than Zero'' by

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack (literary), Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique as a writer is the expression of extreme acts ...

. In

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

's 2009 "California novel" ''

Inherent Vice ''Inherent Vice'' is a novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published on August4, 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to i ...

'' the winds make an appearance and, per one scholar, "the obligatory noir description of their effects appears on page 98." ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' columnist David L. Ulin commented, "...for writers such as Didion and Chandler, the Santa Ana is an emblem of disruption because, for them, Los Angeles is a disrupted world. We can take issue with that impression of the city; I sometimes do and sometimes don't. But when the Santa Ana starts to blow, I invariably grow edgy...unable, in the most concrete sense, to settle myself down." Some of this experienced mood shift is likely due to the increase of

static electricity Static electricity is an imbalance of electric charges within or on the surface of a material. The charge remains until it can move away by an electric current or electrical discharge. The word "static" is used to differentiate it from electric ...

in dry conditions. California folklore therefore credits the winds with "strange luminosity in the form of sparks and glows that accompany the winds" and an excess of "positive

ions An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

, disrupting health, well-being, and temperament."

Song references

Ben Lee Benjamin Michael Lee (born 11 September 1978) is an Australian musician and actor. Lee began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with the Sydney band Noise Addict, but he focused on his solo career when the band broke up in 1995. He app ...

's single " Catch My Disease" * The Sloppy Boys' opening track "Santa Ana Winds" on their sophomore album "Dancing on the Wind" *

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen cho ...

's song " Babylon Sisters" ("Here come those Santa Ana winds again...Bad news.") *

Belinda Carlisle Belinda Jo Carlisle ( ; born August 17, 1958) is an American singer and songwriter. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female rock bands of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a sol ...

song " Summer Rain" *

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

song "Santa Ana Winds" * The Bobs' song "Santa Ana Woman" *

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early America ...

song " I Love L.A." * Eric Church's song "Heart of the Night" on his album ''Heart'' * Old Dominion's song "Make It Sweet" * Waylon Payne in his song "Santa Ana Winds" *

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

's "Santa Ana Winds" is the final track from their 1983 album '' Caught in the Game'' *

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

's song "Western Stars" from his 2019 album '' Western Stars'' * Lagrimas' song "the devil wind" from their 2019 demo * Modern Original and The Mowgli's song "C O O L Santa Ana" (2022) * Rancid's song "Brad Logan" from Chef Aid : The South Park Album (1998). * Michael McDonald's song "Homeboy" from his 1990 album '' Take It to Heart'' * She Wants Revenge's song "Up in Flames" (2011) * Mew's song "The Zookeeper's Boy" (2006) * Mark Knopfler's song "Smart Money" from the album One Deep River (2024) * Emei's song "Scatterbrain" (2023) *

Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...

's song " Los Angeles Is Burning" from the album The Empire Strikes First (2004) * Animal Logic's song "Winds of Santa Ana" from the album Animal Logic (1989) *

Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Lana Del Rey discography, Her music is noted for its melancholic exploration of Glamour (presentation), glamor and Romanc ...

's song "California" from the album Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019) * The Swirling Eddies' song "Hold Back the Wind, Donna, from Outdoor Elvis. (1989) * Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV series) “Santa Ana Winds” song in s2,ep11 (2017)

References

Sources

External links

University of California, Los Angeles, Meteorology Dept.: ''Santa Ana Winds''

What are the ''Santana'' or ''Santa Ana'' Winds?
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Ana Winds Winds Climate of California Southern California Environment of Greater Los Angeles