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Fire watch in place for Southern California cities

As the dry Santa Ana winds pick up speed, multiple cities throughout Los Angeles County have been placed on a fire watch––including La Mirada.
National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard issues a Fire Weather Watch.
National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard issues a Fire Weather Watch.
Photo courtesy of Courtesy of National Weather Service

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard has issued a Fire Weather Watch for most of Los Angeles County, which will go into effect late Wednesday through Friday evening. This includes La Mirada, where Biola’s campus is. 

A Fire Weather Watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur, which often include high wind speeds, heat and low humidity—all of which are anticipated this week. 

The weather service predicts that wind speeds in some parts of the county could be between 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 60 mph on Thursday. It anticipates humidity as low as two to nine percent, with temperatures reaching the high 90s on Friday. 

These winds are known in Southern California as the Santa Ana winds, which were the same winds that fueled last year’s Thomas and Woolsey Fires that swept through Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. 

Over the weekend, the service issued a red flag warning for the mountains and valleys of Los Angeles County, in effect from 6 p.m. Saturday through 10 p.m. Sunday. 

Southern California Edison, the primary electricity supply company for most of Southern California, said it is monitoring the winds and could turn off power to more than 41,000 customers across Southern California. Edison supplies Biola’s power, and though the school is not in a high-risk area, the interconnected nature of the power grid means that it could still be affected by power shutoffs. 

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Brittany Ung, Web Editor
Brittany Ung is a senior journalism major who loves fine point pens and could easily beat you in a tangerine eating contest. [email protected] Hi! I'm a journalism major from the Bay Area, home of Google, Tom Hanks and probably the most (or at least the best) boba shops per capita in the nation. I grew up doing competitive speech and debate — I competed in my first tournament when I was just 12 years old, advocating for the privatization of the United States Postal Service. Diving into the study of public policy taught me that I love learning about people and how we react to the things we’re confronted with. Right now, I'm picking up as much as I can about how we blueprint the world we live in, through industrial design and city planning. When my brain is too full to learn anything else, I'll play card games, practice cooking or re-read my favorite children's books.  I’m following in the steps of my mom (and homeschool teacher), herself a former news director and radio broadcaster. We’re almost opposites when it comes to personality, but we share a love for synonyms, Century Gothic and learning new things.  I was previously the Chimes’ news editor and editor-in-chief, but I’m back as web editor to challenge myself to learn about multimedia, web design and audience engagement by working on our website and social media profiles.
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