When Santa Ana winds hit Southern California, all types of catastrophes can occur.
The atmosphere bunches up behind the eastern mountain slopes, and then spills over the mountains, driving down to the sea.
This movement of air, from higher to lower elevation, compresses and then heats, drying everything out, a precursor to wild fires, with the temperature at the beach higher than inland!
The smog gets compressed too, so you see a perfectly clear day everywhere to the east.
Looking out to sea, there is a thin red stain directly over the water, above which things are clear.
The smog gets compressed too, so you see a perfectly clear day everywhere to the east.
Looking out to sea, there is a thin red stain directly over the water, above which things are clear.
So, where the air is usually clear, and the ocean breeze is welcomed, now the air over the ocean is very unhealthy, as the smog concentrates through compression.
With the wind, many strange things can occur.
This particular problem could possibly be blamed on east coast architects, that were unfamiliar with how things work in SoCal.
The buildings in question looked somewhat like 6 story mushrooms, smaller first and 2nd floors, and then larger floors above, fourth and fifth and sixth.
The orientation of the front doors to the two adjacent buildings (the NW corner of the southern building was adjacent to the SE corner of it's neighbor) was on the south side of the northern building and the north side of the southern building.
With the winds, the space between the two buildings became a wind tunnel, with the 6 story building directing air precisely through the gap between the two front doors.
The side of the buildings conspired to have 50-60MPH winds, while just 100 yards away the wind was only 10-15 MPH.
It was dangerous to walk between the buildings, people were swept off their feet, and opening either entry door was difficult to impossible, with the door handles slipping from peoples fingers and slamming against the rubber stops installed in the cement behind the doors.
Engineers were called in to mitigate the problem, the solution of which was to change the location of the lobby for both buildings at a cost of millions of dollars, with the space between buildings still dangerous during Santa Anas, but without people traffic.
Love you, GMWF
--
Frish
