Yowza!

This sign in Boyle Heights must need calibration. It was hot today, but it couldn’t have been that hot. I think this is the week eloteros officially become raspaderos. There ought to be a ceremony.

4 thoughts on “Yowza!

  1. Not surprised at the temp reading with all that cement and asphalt radiating heat. “El Hoyo” in Boyle Heights registered 94 degrees yesterday. It usually has a cool breeze carrying the pungent smell of Farmer John’s slaughter house, but yesterday was all hot Santa Ana winds.

    BTW, is it Santa Ana or Santana? Both make sense given the prevailing direction of the wind and the heat it brings.

  2. Most evidence suggests the Santa Ana Winds get their name from Santa Ana Canyon, the canyon where the Santa Ana River cuts through between the Chino Hills and the Santa Ana mountains, where CA highway 91 runs on its way from Anaheim to Corona.

    The Santa Anas are particularly fierce here as they’re funneled through the canyon. (You’ll notice that NWS wind warnings frequently include the phrase, “especially below passes and canyons.”)

    Some accounts suggest that the original term was santanas, claimed to be Spanish for “devil winds”, i.e., “winds of Satan”, vientos de Satanás, and only later became “Santa Anas” around 1910 or so when a newspaper correspondent stationed in Santa Ana misheard the term as “Santa Anas”.

    The latter explanation seems rather dubious to me on linguistic grounds, and I don’t know of any actual historical evidence that supports it.

  3. It’s moment like these that I enjoy being in Boston, where the weather is unpredictable but never as hot as it gets in the basin, especially with the Santa Anas. It rained in the morning! Two days ago it was around 75.

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