Santa Ana winds of southern California during the October 2007 wildfires

Santa Ana winds are synoptically driven mesoscale winds observed in southern California usually during late fall and winter. Due to the complex topography of the region, Santa Ana episodes can sometimes be extremely intense and pose significant environmental hazards especially during wildfire incidents. During 21-26 October 2007, southern California experienced devastating wildfires driven by intense Santa Ana winds. This presentation will discuss this event and show high resolution numerical simulations obtained with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS).