Winds should be an issue even in areas that are relatively sheltered from such events. In Pasadena, for example, despite its location to the southern (leeward) side of the San Gabriel Mountains, the forecast still calls for sustained winds exceeding 20 mph, with the occasional gust up to 35 mph.

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By Monday afternoon, National Weather Service offices had issued high wind warnings for the region’s higher elevations, effective from midday Tuesday into early Wednesday. Also, a gale warning was posted for the Pacific Ocean as far as nearly 250 nautical miles offshore, as mariners may be confronting gusts up to 45 knots and seas as high as 17 feet.

This will be Southern California’s first major wind event of 2019, as this year mostly has been memorable for precipitation that’s fallen at a pace that’s well above average. Consider that downtown Los Angeles has taken in only 0.01 inches of rain over a span of more than a month, since March 6. But even with this dry spell, rainfall for the water year beginning in October measures 18 inches on the nose — better than 30 percent greater than the norm and close to quadrupling the paltry 4.61 inches recorded at this time in 2018.

Highways could bear the brunt of the potential hazards caused by this powerful-yet-dry storm. Driving could be difficult, especially for those in high-profile vehicles, and there is always the threat of wind kicking up clouds of sand and dust. Thankfully, the wet winter may have helped tamp down bare dirt, if not give it some vegetation.