Forecasters say Southern California this week could see the worst winds since 2011, when a massive storm cut a path of destruction through Pasadena and other parts of the San Gabriel Valley.
Offshore winds will be dry, unpredictable and strong — possibly up to 100 mph in some parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The worst of the windstorm is expected Tuesday through Wednesday.
Here is what happened in 2011, from the pages of The Times.
A stunning toll
Few residents in the San Gabriel Valley will forget the events of late November and early December 2011, when winds cut off power to 400,000 residents, downed thousands of trees and damaged more than 200 homes and structures. Traffic hit gridlock conditions because so many traffic lights had blacked out. Roof shingles were peeled off and garage doors were knocked askew.
Officials took the rare step of temporarily closing Griffith Park because of the windstorm, fearing that downed wires might spark fires in piles of dry, shattered tree branches.
Read more: ‘Life-threatening’ winds set to hit Southern California: Here’s the forecast
“Nobody in our department has ever seen such widespread damage. Nobody,” Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, told The Times at the time.
An unusual storm
The winds were produced by two separate weather systems that channeled cold air from the north into the Los Angeles area.
A clockwise high-pressure system was parked over Northern California and the Great Basin as a counterclockwise low-pressure system hovered over Arizona.
Like two massive gears spinning in opposite directions, the systems funneled the winds.
“In some places we’ve seen gusts over hurricane force, which for the Southwest part of the country is not something that usually happens,” Brian Edwards, a meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, told The Times back then.
The aftermath
In the end, the storm caused $40 million in damage. Pasadena was hit hardest, with $20 million in damage.
Residents expressed displeasure with how long it took local utilities to restore power in some locations.
One of the biggest headaches was clearing the many downed trees, a process that took several weeks.
Walter Warriner, a Santa Monica arborist, told The Times a lot of trees had had their roots cut for sidewalk and street repairs, eliminating anchors to hold them down during exceedingly strong winds.
“There’s an urban myth that what you see above ground is mirrored below ground,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
