A cold snap has held the Southland in a frigid grip for several days with night temps in near or below freezing in many places. Tonight, the temperature is expected to dip down into the chilly zone in many places. Burbank, which has had lows in the 30s this week, will see the temperature drop into the low 40s tonight. The high today in B-town reached into the low 60s. The weather watchers are promising even warmer temps by the beginning of next Monday and Tuesday. They say day time temps will be back into the comfortable 70s.
Luckily, those vicious winds which battered the Media City earlier this week have died down. The strong winds left behind plenty of broken tree branches, tons of leaves, palm fronds, and other debris that still needs to be cleaned up.
Photo: FLLewis / Media City G — Downed tree branches, palm fronds, and leaves at George Izay Park in Burbank January 3, 2015
A lot of the wind strewn debris is still covering some of the grounds at George Izay Park on West Olive Avenue today. Last Tuesday, some of those wind whipped palm fronds are being blamed for some drama over near West Victory Boulevard and North Parish Place. Freelance photographer Greg Reyna says a ” loud, thunderous boom” and a “bright flash of light” at around 7:45 p.m. that evening had some residents scrambling into the street to see what had happened. He was one of them.
Reyna and the others discovered the wind had caused havoc. “The wind threw them (palm fronds) down onto a nearby power line, forcing it into contact with another hot wire, causing an event that looked and felt like a bomb had gone off. The burning fronds wound up splayed over Victory. The first oncoming drivers avoided the smoldering branches, but soon the fronds were hit and spread all over the boulevard. Within a few minutes, traffic was backed up, and the fire department arrived.”
Photo: Greg Reyna / freelancer / Media City G — Fire crews responded to a wind related incident near West Victory Blvd. and North Parish Place in Burbank December 30, 2014
Firefighters quickly put out the flaming fronds. Myburbank reports there were other wind/power related incidents including lights flickering at the Burbank Town Center, flashing signal lights, and a rescue from a stuck elevator. Burbank Water and Power’s, Kapil Kulkarni,says there was a power outage at 10:30 p.m. in the area bound by Magnolia Boulevard, Clark Avenue, Griffith Park Drive, and Mariposa Street. About 45 customers were affected. BWP crews had the service restored with an hour.
