Weather 12/19/17

Good Tuesday morning,

It is a good morning, I have not said this in a while. Today is going to be a nice calm day with sunshine and burnt mountains in the backround..

Many of the people that are displaced are allowed to go back into their homes, so they can begin to get ready for Christmas. This is good news for some, but many others are still locked out of the houses. People that are able to return are from East Valley Road to the beach, and Olive Mill Road  and south to Toro Canyon. All other areas are still closed. They even have military personnel blocking the way into the restricted areas. They have many Hum Vee's blocking the entrances.

The main reason for the closure is the risk of the fire returning Wednesday night.  So yes, this brings us to Wednesday. Wednesday will start out slightly damp because we will have an onshore flow. This is thanks to a low that will brush us. Rain will occur from Lompoc to the north. No rain here or south, but winds will pick up from the north on Wednesday night.

http://www.weather.gov/lox/

This will create a 12-hour condition that will cause strong north winds. A classic sundowner wind event starting around 5 or 6 PM and last until the next morning. That is what created all the problems way back in 1990, when we had the painted cave fire. Not that this will happen again, because the hills have only 10 years of growth since the last fires. They are cautious about allowing people back into evacuation areas until this event blows though in the fire areas.  

If all goes well I feel we will be out of the woods by Thursday. The wind event here will be over, and Friday I think they will begin to let people back into their homes.

Beyond Thursday. Ventura will experience wind as a new Santa Ana wind event comes back. For us in Santa Barbara, nice weather though Christmas. With Christmas day bringing a high of 72 degrees.

Also, I think the smoke will be a thing of the past.

Enjoy the nice day, then we will see what Wednesday night brings us... Beyond that, Christmas is here .... We will talk about this Christmas year for the rest of our lives, and not in a great way.  

As always, we will get through this, we make the best of what we have.