San Diego is not out of the woods yet.
Another round of Santa Ana winds moved into Southern California and spread south through San Diego County late Thursday. The additional dry air also is expected to worsen the region’s already very low humidity levels, according to the National Weather Service.
The red-flag warning extended Wednesday for the county’s inland valleys still is set to expire at 6 p.m. Friday, with overnight northeast winds of 28 to 38 mph and possible gusts of 50 mph, up to 60 mph after midnight.
Here are zoomed up views of the #SantaAnawinds gusts for tonight through Friday morning, then the wind decreasing quickly during Friday afternoon #socal #cawx winds increase and decrease from north to south with time since the air is coming from the desert pic.twitter.com/elfYKdr4HE
— NWS San Diego (@NWSSanDiego) January 10, 2025
But relief is in sight. Forecasters said that the winds will begin to ease by midday Friday and continue tapering off into Saturday. That means easterly winds of 24 to 34 mph and gusts of 45 mph becoming westerly winds of 6 to 16 mph with gusts to 25 mph in the afternoon.
The region has not faced the catastrophic fires that have hit Los Angeles, but remains on high alert. Crews had to extinguish two small fires in East and South County Thursday.
The first, around noon, drew the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department to Palm Avenue in Palm City, where they worked to stop a one-acre brush fire in what firefighters described as medium fuels. Copter 3 also responded and crews had the fire out in about 35 minutes.
#HamletFire [update] Firefighters are making good progress. There are no evacuation warnings or orders issued at this time. pic.twitter.com/Nu0MNztzEE
— CAL FIRE/San Diego County Fire (@CALFIRESANDIEGO) January 9, 2025
CalFire crews also halted a 2-to-3 acre brush fire off La Cresta Road and Hamlet Drive in Crest, according to the agency, which received no reports of structural damage or injuries.
Firefighters, on scene before 2 p.m., had the flames under control by 4 p.m., the agency said, and will patrol “the entire fire perimeter through the night,” watching for hotspots.
Crest was devastated by the 2003 Cedar Fire, which burned nearly 300 of the backcountry community’s 1,100 homes according to the Crest Historical Society.
