SAN DIEGO — San Diego County edged closer to drought Tuesday, whipped by fierce and damaging Santa Ana winds that further dried out a region that hasn’t received a long, deep soaking of rain since March.

The wind storm, which toppled big rigs on Interstate 8, fanned wildfires and canceled school in 10 rural districts, might be followed by weak Santa Anas on Sunday and again next Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

There might be some brief drizzle on Thursday. But forecast models suggest that the region will otherwise be mostly dry until Christmas Eve, and perhaps all the way to New Year’s Eve. The jet stream is likely to prevent big storms up north from dipping into Southern California.

“After the hot summer (we had) it could be a really slow start to the winter,” said Alex Tardy, a weather service forecaster.

Santa Ana winds usually arrive from the north-northeast, which isn’t conducive for funneling them all the way to the coast. But Tuesday’s winds largely came from the east and followed a fairly clear path almost all the way to the ocean. They squeezed through mountain passes that caused the Santa Anas to gain great speed. Sill Hill near Ramona reported a gust to 95 mph — 1 mph shy of equaling the force of a category 2 hurricane. It was the highest gust reported Tuesday in Southern California, which was broadly hit by the Santa Anas.

“It’s like when you put your thumb over the end of a garden house,” said John Suk, a weather service forecaster. “The water flows faster, then goes down not far away.”

The winds reached 71 mph along Interstate 8, east of Alpine, causing a nightmare for motorists. The gusts toppled five big rigs, temporarily snarling traffic. Dozens of the big rigs pulled over to the side of the freeway or onto off and on-ramps to wait out the wind.

Doug Aguillard, a videographer for OnScene.TV, said he saw four of the big rigs that crashed Tuesday. “This is just nuts,” he said. “These truckers won’t stop… It is not even gusts. It is just constant.”

That part of the county also was the scene of a worrisome brush fire that broke out in late morning southwest of Barrett Junction, a small community off state Route 94 in East County. Around 175 firefighters and at least four helicopters were sent to the fire, dubbed the Border 79 fire, which was burning on the northwest side of Tecate Peak.

Officials said it was too windy for tankers to get low enough to drop water or fire retardant on the flames.

Evacuations were briefly ordered south of SR-94, from Dulzura Summit to east of Barrett Junction, including all along Conchera Via Road. The order was lifted just after 12:30 p.m., with officials saying residents remained under an “evacuation warning” and should be prepared to evacuate if conditions change.

Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the blaze, which charred 24 acres, a Cal Fire spokesperson said. Firefighters reported having the fire 50% contained by early afternoon.

The risk of wildfire was enhanced by low relative humidity, which had fallen to the 5% to 15% range by early afternoon.

Forecasters correctly predicted the onset and path of Tuesday’s storm. San Diego Gas & Electric notified more than 117,000 of its customers over the weekend that it might temporarily shut off their power to reduce the threat of wildfires, and that outages could last a day or more. It calls such outages public safety power shutoffs — de-energizing power lines to reduce the risk that high winds could knock them down into dry vegetation and spark a wildfire.

It began to follow through on that warning Monday, leading to outages in more than 40 communities, including Alpine, Julian, El Cajon, Escondido, Lakeside and Ramona. By early Tuesday, roughly 51,000 households had lost power, and they might not get it back for a day or two.

Shortly after 4:15 a.m. Tuesday, as winds were kicking up, firefighters responded to a brush fire on Rangeland Road north of Highland Valley Road in the Ramona area.

The fire, pushed by winds and burning in a grassy area, ran into a riparian creek area where its progress slowed, and firefighters were able to gain the upper hand, said Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette.

The power outage prompted Harrah’s Resort Southern California in the Valley Center area to close, but the casino and resort reported that guests were being welcomed back as of 3 p.m., with power restored.

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(Staff writers Maura Fox and Rob Nikolewski contributed to this report.)

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