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The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for high
fire risk with a rare “particularly dangerous situation,” or PDS,
designation starting at 8 p.m. Monday into Tuesday for Los
Angeles and Ventura counties.
The last time PDS red flags went up was the first week of
November, when powerful, dry winds fed the Mountain Fire, which
destroyed at least 240 buildings, mostly homes, in Ventura
County. Before that, a PDS red flag warning hadn't been issued
for the region since 2020.
“This event has the potential to be as strong as the November
5th-6th Santa Ana event that led to the Mountain Fire,” the
weather service office for Los Angeles said Sunday on social
media.
Nearly 42,000 customers lost power in San Diego County, with
utilities saying more outages will likely be coming.
Southern California Edison had previously said it was
considering targeted power shut-offs for more than 250,000 homes
and businesses across seven counties starting Monday evening.
Meanwhile San Diego Gas & Electric said it has notified nearly
117,500 customers that they might temporarily lose service to
reduce the chance of wildfires.
Winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 97 kph) in and around mountain
ranges in Southern California had been recorded by Monday night,
with some gusts above 60 mph (97 kph) in the Santa Ana and San
Gabriel mountains, according to the National Weather Service.
Santa Anas are dry, warm and gusty northeast winds that blow
from the interior of Southern California toward the coast and
offshore. They typically occur during the fall months and
continue through winter and into early spring.
In Northern California, the weather service said chances were
increasing for an “impactful rainfall event” late in the week
for the San Francisco Bay Area.
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