Strong Winds Whip Through Los Angeles Area
Winds gusting to 94 miles per hour blasted the Golden State (5) Freeway corridor in northwest Los Angeles County today, and 60- mph gusts lashed the San Gabriel Valley as a storm out of the north chilled the Southland for a second consecutive day.
A high wind warning for the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys — including Woodland Hills, Northridge, Burbank, Universal City, Pasadena and Pomona — remained in effect until noon today, according to the National Weather Service.
Snow levels came down to between 2,000 and 2,500 feet on the “High 5” corridor early today, contributing to treacherous driving conditions in the mountains this morning.
Fierce winds contributed to power outages for thousands of residents across the Southland, knocked down tree limbs, and hurled tumbleweeds and other debris throughout L.A. County, utility and weather officials said.
Downed trees and debris blocked streets and freeway interchanges from north of Lancaster to downtown Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades, according to the California Highway Patrol and the Weather Service.
“It’s peaking right now, between now and sunrise,” Rich Thompson of the Weather Service said at 2 a.m. “We could see more of the same through rush hour.”
Some winds today were blowing at hurricane-force. A wind gust of 94 miles per hour was measured at Whitaker Peak in northwest Los Angeles County at 3:57 a.m., Curt Kaplan of the Weather Service said.
Maximum wind gusts in L.A. County between 9:32 p.m. Wednesday and 12:32 a.m. today included 75 mph at Warm Springs, 66 mph at Chilao, 56 mph in Lancaster, 38 mph in Lancaster and 33 mph in Malibu Canyon, according to the Weather Service.
Winds over 74 mph are considered “hurricane-force,” Kaplan said.
Late Wednesday the eastbound and westbound Florence Avenue on-ramps to the southbound Long Beach (710) Freeway were closed due to a large tree that is down in the roadway, according to the CHP.
Early today there was a partial closure on the connector from the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway to the eastbound San Bernardino (10) Freeway in Boyle Heights due to an entire tree down, according to the CHP.
Also early today in northwest L.A. County, there was a closure on Lancaster Road, also known as state Route 138, where two or three big rigs crashed and there was a fuel spill, according to the CHP.
Traffic was being turned around and the closure was expected to last about two hours. The location was just west of Old Ridge Route Road, east of Gorman and the Golden State (5) Freeway.
Temperatures were bitter-cold in the San Gabriel Mountains early today and comparatively mild in L.A. County coastal and valley areas.
At 2 a.m. the National Weather Service reported that it was 19 degrees on Mount Wilson, 36 in Lancaster and Palmdale, 44 in Van Nuys, 49 in downtown Los Angeles and 48 in Long Beach.
Due to snow and winds, treacherous driving conditions were possible this morning on the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway around Acton, according to the Weather Service.
Out at sea, gale-force winds were expected to create hazards across outer waters and potentially on inner waters, with high surf and rip currents continuing through early this morning, according to the weather service.
Thousands of Southland residents were without power this morning due to storm-related outages, utility officials said.
There were an estimated 6,000 homes and businesses without electricity due to outages in the city of Los Angeles, Kim Hughes of the Department of Water and Power said just before 4 a.m.
The department’s computer server also was down, Hughes added. She could not say where the outages were this morning in the city of Los Angeles.
System-wide for Southern California Edison, there were 32,260 homes and businesses without electricity due to winds and storm-related problems, Mashi Nyssen of Edison said.
Outage-hit areas in Los Angeles County included Lancaster, Bell Gardens, Inglewood and Downey, Nyssen said. Southern California Edison serves 12 counties, Nyssen said.
