Q. What are Santa Ana winds?
Named after Southern California’s Santa Ana Canyon and a fixture of local legend and literature, the Santa Ana is a blustery, dry and warm (often hot) wind that blows out of the desert. In Raymond Chandler’s story Red Wind, the title being one of the offshore wind’s many nicknames, the Santa Anas were introduced as “those hot dry [winds] that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch.
Prepare:
Learn and teach safe fire practices:
- Build fires away from nearby trees or bushes.
- Always have a way to extinguish the fire quickly and completely.
- Install smoke detectors on every level of your home and near sleeping areas.
- Never leave a fire-even a cigarette-burning unattended.
- Avoid open burning completely, and especially during dry season.
Protect your home: All vegetation is fuel for a wildfire, though some trees and shrubs are more flammable than others. To reduce the risk, modify or eliminate brush, trees and other vegetation near your home. The greater the distance is between your home and the vegetation, the greater the protection. Leaves, trash and other combustible materials should be cleared from underneath sun decks and porches. Find more information on ways to protect your home at www.fema.gov/hazard/wildfire/wf_prepare.shtm#3.
Learn and teach safe fire practices:
- Build fires away from nearby trees or bushes.
- Always have a way to extinguish the fire quickly and completely.
- Install smoke detectors on every level of your home and near sleeping areas.
- Never leave a fire-even a cigarette-burning unattended.
- Avoid open burning completely, and especially during dry season.
- If you have an exterior television antenna or satellite dish, tighten it up or remove it for a short while. These things have been known to fly off and leave you with nothing but some exposed wires.
- Check roof shingles annually. Some people keep a small stack of extra shingles to replace the ones we lose every year.
- Duct tape: it isn’t exactly a pretty choice, you can reinforce your windows with duct tape. The wind would blow and stretch our windows inward, but they’d never break.
- Check and tighten shutters.
- Keep all trees and bushes properly trimmed and away from windows. Keeping outdoor debris clear, you’ll be helping reduce the chances of a large fire spreading.
The one thing the Santa Ana winds will bring is the opportunity for you to check for insulation gaps in your windows and doors, so with the winds departure today, maybe this weekend is a good time to get insulate your windows.
Read more at: http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=41754
Disclaimer: For information and entertainment purposes only.
Green Real Estate Appraiser 