The Santa Ana winds are fast, hot, dry and persistent.
Way back when I was a pup, I used to hang out with the Civil Defense Officer for the Pomona Valley, he told me that if a fire started north of LA and a Santa Ana blew for a week (not uncommon), it would burn all the way to the Pacific, and there wouldn't be a dammed thing they could do about it.
“The Santa Ana winds are fast, hot, dry and persistent.”
Dry they are - the high desert IS dryer. Hot? Not always. It is season and in the winter they are cooler or downright cold compared to the valleys south of the mountains, that don’t get as cold in the winter as the high deserts north of the mountains. Persistent? Short term they are less steady than they are very gusty with great variation in the gusts. The may “persist” for some days, but I would not describe them as persistent, as they can come and go, even during a single day, as they do during any season.