Santa Ana winds
（重定向自Santana wind）
![The Santa Ana winds sweep down from the deserts and across coastal southern California, pushing dust and smoke from wildfires far out over the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles is in the upper left of this image, and San Diego is near the center.](/Images/godic/202502/09/PIA034453602.jpg")
![This map illustration shows a characteristic high-pressure area centered over the Great Basin, with the clockwise anticyclone wind flow out of the high-pressure center giving rise to a Santa Ana wind event as the airmass flows through the passes and canyons of southern California, manifesting as a dry northeasterly wind.](/Images/godic/202502/09/Santa_ana_winds3602.jpg")
![QuikSCAT image showing the speed of the Santa Ana winds (m/s).](/Images/godic/202502/09/SantaAnaWinds_QuikSCAT_2002feb3602.jpg")
The Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry down-slope winds that originate inland and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. Santa Ana winds blow mostly in autumn and winter, but can arise at other times of the year also. The winds originate from cool, dry high-pressure air masses in the Great Basin. The winds are known especially for the hot dry weather (often the hottest of the year) that they bring in the fall, and are infamous for fanning regional wildfires. For these reasons, they are sometimes known as the "devil winds" across Southern California.