Preemptive Blackouts, Not Flames: Santa Ana Winds Put Southern California on Edge
Tens of thousands of Southern Californians were without electricity Thursday as utilities cut power ahead of the season's first significant Santa Ana wind event. Southern California Edison's public safety power shutoffs were in effect for more than 55,000 customers, nearly 50,000 of them in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, KTLA reported, with roughly 220,000 more still under consideration. Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that more than 100,000 homes and businesses statewide had lost power — more than 68,000 on PG&E's grid and about 39,000 on Edison's — citing PowerOutage.us data.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard issued a Red Flag Warning from 6 a.m. Thursday until 8 p.m. Saturday for the mountains and foothills of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, extending Friday to interior Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Winds were forecast northeast to east at 20–40 mph with gusts of 50–70 mph, strongest Friday afternoon, when isolated gusts of 70–90 mph were possible. Minimum relative humidity was expected to hold at 10–25 percent.
Forecasters described hot, dry conditions with temperatures climbing into the 80s and 90s and mountain gusts up to 70 mph — a mix, KTLA noted, that would let any new ignition spread fast. The Santa Monica Daily Press reported temperatures up to 95 degrees were expected around Malibu. Los Angeles County's fire, sheriff's and emergency management departments said the combination of very low humidity and strong winds "will create conditions capable of producing rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior."
The outages are deliberate. Edison de-energizes circuits when wind, humidity and fuel-moisture readings cross thresholds, then sends crews to inspect lines and equipment — a process that typically takes up to eight hours and longer if damage is found. SCE said its wildfire mitigation work includes undergrounding lines and installing covered conductors to reduce the need for future shutoffs. PG&E described its own action as taken "out of an abundance of caution for public safety."
Reuters reported Edison was weighing shutoffs for as many as 245,700 customers — its largest potential outage this year — across Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern, Tulare and Santa Barbara counties, with the biggest share, about 124,000, in Ventura County. Bloomberg put the figure at roughly 246,000, close to 5 percent of the utility's customers. The Ventura County Star reported that more than 23,000 local customers had already lost power by early Thursday afternoon, plus 16,000 in Los Angeles and Kern counties, with circuits cut around Simi Valley, Moorpark, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and Piru. Dozens of other circuits serving more than 100,000 customers were still being monitored. The Santa Clarita Valley Signal reported 40,531 customers out as of Thursday afternoon, with 230,065 still in scope.
The event was not confined to the south. PG&E began shutting off power around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday; by 6 a.m. Thursday, 61,730 customers across more than two dozen counties had lost service, with about 90,000 in scope across 29 counties, KION Central Coast reported. The utility's own advisories listed roughly 88,000 customers, including about 5,500 Medical Baseline customers and six tribal governments. Cuesta College's San Luis Obispo campus moved classes fully online, KSBY reported. PG&E said restoration could stretch into Saturday afternoon.
The first notable ignition came in Ventura County. The Cornell Fire, a vegetation blaze near Santa Paula, burned about 0.23 acres, prompting an evacuation warning for the Santa Paula 19 zone and a shelter-in-place order for Todd Road 01, according to Watch Duty. By early Friday, incident command had stopped forward progress and lifted both orders.
The Los Angeles Fire Department's Red Flag parking restrictions took effect at 6 a.m. Thursday and were to last at least 48 hours; vehicles parked illegally in posted Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones could be towed. LAFD said extra resources were pre-positioned in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica Mountains, Hollywood Hills and West Los Angeles. Ventura County opened resource centers from Oxnard to Piru with water, snacks and charging banks; PG&E stood up centers including at UC Berkeley, Merritt College in Oakland and Pacific Union College in Napa County, open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Climate scientist Daniel Swain told the Los Angeles Times: "This is not January 2025. The winds are not going to be anywhere near as strong. They will not be as widespread. The vegetation is not as dry." NWS meteorologist Scott Schoenfeld likewise noted the winds were weaker than during the January 2025 fires, when gusts hit 60 to 100 mph. Those fires, Palisades and Eaton, killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. A 700-page review released in October by UL's Fire Safety Research Institute made 266 recommendations and found LAFD recalled off-duty firefighters only after the Palisades fire had started.
Winds were expected to peak Friday afternoon and ease through the weekend, with the Red Flag Warning lapsing at 8 p.m. Saturday. When the lights come back depends on inspections: Edison says its process typically runs up to eight hours and longer if equipment is damaged, and PG&E has told some customers to expect restoration no earlier than Saturday afternoon. Officials urged residents to keep phones charged, keep gas tanks full, and call 911 to report smoke.