The sun is responsible for the Santa Ana winds and every other wind on earth.

Period.

The sun's waves heat up atoms and move air around. On the Pacific coast, a place I called home for over thirty years, the Santa Ana winds start up in September and October - which for CA are the hottest months and why the winds form - because of more radiation getting through from the sun.

When the solar flare hits the magnetosphere and the ionosphere some of that energy is deflected and sent into the fast moving bands of particles which surround the planet and some breaks through into the ionosphere and some trickles on down from the ionosphere to the mesophere, etc. It all depends on the wave lengths and quantity of the incoming radiation.

When the huge ejection's energy hits around noon EST today - watch for winds to pick up all over the coastlines by the evening or the next day. The waves will impart extra energy into atoms and particles, heat them, and the warm air will rise - to be replaced with pockets of cooler air over the seas. Firefighters will be lucky if the winds only pick up a little. It would require a more accurate model than I have on hand to calculate how much the winds will pick up around CA and if I had an accurate model I would be sure to sell it to weather newscasters who are always wrong. Large fires unfortunately create their own winds as they rise the air and cool air rushes in to displace it and they do not require much added assistance from the sun once they get big.

If you think that believing that the sun controls the wind is a belief from my own private fantasy world, you'll find a LOT of other atmospheric scientists share this fantasy world with me. In fact, it's d@mn crowded.

Sometimes I wonder if you just want to disagree with me.

;-)

SDAI-Tech1