Foehn Winds of Southern California

Abstract

One of the characteristic weather phenomena of southern California is a wind of the foehn type known locally as the Santa Ana. Unseasonably high temperatures and very low humidities are associated with its occurence. The maximum effects of this wind are felt in the region south of Cajon Pass at the eastern extremity of the Los Angeles Basin. The latter area, extending eastward from the sea to the San Bernardino Mountains, is ordinarily protected from continental influences by the rather high San Gabriel Mountains to the north. Cajon Pass, trending roughly north and south between the San Gabriel Mountains to the west and the San Bernardino Mountains to the east, opens to the north upon the Mohave Desert and to the south upon the alluvial plain of the Los Angeles Basin.