WINDS GUST UP TO 50 MPH.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

Santa Ana winds scorched the Southland on Friday with gusts as high as 50 mph, but this latest round of devil winds was expected to die down by Halloween, forecasters said.

As the breeze picked up Friday morning, strong gusts knocked a prefabricated house off a truck near Newhall, blocking traffic for an hour.

Hair stylists spent the day repairing wind-blown bouffants. Surfers took advantage of 4-foot waves.

And firefighters remained on alert, staffing extra crews deployed throughout the San Fernando Valley, in case the wind whipped any sparks into full-blown brush fires.

``You don't fool Mother Nature. We've learned our lesson on that,'' said Los Angeles city Fire Capt. Steve Ruda.

Gusts were expected to reach 20 mph to 30 mph in the Valley overnight and continue through this morning, said weather specialist Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.

In the canyons, gusts could reach 40 mph but were expected to die down by this evening, he said.

The Santa Anas are the result of a high-pressure system squeezing hot desert air into Los Angeles, Seto said.

After moist, foggy weather cooled the region Thursday, a high-pressure system moved over Nevada and Utah, he said. That aligned with a low-pressure system in the desert below, in effect creating a meteorological ramp, sending the Santa Ana winds rolling into the Southland.

The wind temperature increased 5 degrees for every 1,000-foot drop in altitude, creating the hot gusts, he said. Today's forecast high is in the mid-80s to low 90s, but that will plunge to a low tonight from the high 40s to 50 degrees.

The hot air boosted Friday's temperatures from the day before, pushing the mercury to 82 degrees in Northridge, compared to 77 on Thursday, and rising from 71 to 82 in Burbank. No records were set, however.

``If we get the Santa Ana winds, that obviously makes fighting fires in the brush much more difficult,'' said Los Angeles County fire Capt. Steve Valenzuela. High winds cut the effectiveness of water-dropping helicopters and planes, because ``it makes it difficult to hit the target and fly at low altitudes.''

As a precaution, the county department sent extra wildfire crews to Malibu and Santa Clarita, he said.

The Los Angeles city Fire Department is also on red-flag alert, deploying units from other areas of the city to vulnerable spots in the Valley.

Five extra engine companies have gone to stations in Porter Ranch, Woodland Hills, Sunland-Tujunga, Canoga Park and on Mulholland Drive. And a ``tactical task force'' of three more engine companies was waiting in Sherman Oaks, ready to assist other stations in attacking a blaze anywhere.

``Our strategy is, if we can get to the brush fire and contain it in its incipient stages, we can control it rapidly,'' Ruda said.

In the Newhall area, where winds gusted to 50 mph Friday morning, the California Highway Patrol released a wind advisory at 9:51 a.m., suggesting that drivers of trailers, campers and oversize loads use caution.

It was too late, however, for a trucker hauling a prefabricated house on the transition road from the southbound 5 to the eastbound 210 freeway.

``The driver looked in his mirror and saw the wind push the trailer up and throw it on its side,'' said CHP spokesman Doug Sweeney. ``Every time it gets like this, normally we get at least one traffic accident.''

In addition to CHP officers and tow truck operators, the winds create brisk business for some hair stylists.

``If it blows out one day, they'll come in tomorrow for redos,'' said Josie Cavalluzzi, owner of Michelangelo Creations beauty salon in Woodland Hills. ``They get frustrated because they have to spend double. But the day after the wind it's so clear, they don't talk about their hair, they talk about no smog.''

The Santa Anas coming out of the northwest are also helping out surfers, said lifeguard specialist Craig Mattox, stationed at Zuma Beach.

When those breezes hit the 2- to 4-foot waves coming in from the west, they hold them up a little longer - an effect about 35 surfers were taking advantage of early Friday, he said.

But those waves are nothing like the 16- to 18-foot swells found on the California coast north of Point Conception, just above Santa Barbara. The south-facing beaches in Southern California are protected from those walls of water because those waves are being generated by a massive storm off Vancouver Island, Mattox said. Beaches farther north are more west-facing, open to the full brunt of the storm, he said.