Santa Anas Are Here

It’s that fabled time of year when the Santa Ana Winds start to wind their way over the mountains and through the canyons of LA. The subject of many a song and movie, the winds have a magical and seemingly sinister effect on Angelenos.

Raymond Chandler has written that the crime rate actually goes up when the winds blow as they make everyone here just a little crazy. I don’t know that I buy that one, but it does have some practical real-world effects — allergies are exacerbated by the dry winds, some have trouble sleeping due to the winds howling all night long.

Me, I love the Santa Anas. I can see the trees from my bedroom window bend and wrestle violently with the wind, almost as though they’re taking the pummeling personally. They have an eerie spookiness to them, hooooing and wheeeeening through distant canyons with the wildness and power and Mother Nature makes herself heard.

They also push out the dust and smoke that always builds over the summer months, raising the curtain on spectacular mountain and ocean views we locals get to take for granted all winter long.

So as I write this, the Sun is going down and the winds will soon pick up, and I get to look forward to another round of those trees against the relentless, invisible howling winds.