Dangerous winds and drought will create extreme fire risk across Southern California Tuesday, putting more than 11 million people in the path of conditions that would allow blazes to spread quickly as the region holds out hope for rain.
Seasonal Santa Ana winds will blast a large swath of the state through at least Thursday, creating critical fire weather from northern Ventura County and Los Angeles County to the US-Mexico border. The strongest gusts — which could reach 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour — are expected to arrive Tuesday morning, weakening by late afternoon.
Three small fires were reported early Tuesday in San Diego County, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, forcing evacuations and threatening structures. The Lilac fire has burned at least 80 acres (32 hectares) in the hills northeast of Carlsbad, while crews were able to quickly curb smaller blazes that sparked nearby. The area was the site of a large brush fire in 2017, which was the most destructive fire year on record to that point.
While forecasters with the National Weather Service predict a chance of rain over the weekend, the winds pummeling Southern California today will further dry the landscape.
“In fact, this will likely be the driest air mass we have seen with all offshore wind events this season,” the National Weather Service wrote in an update Tuesday, “with many areas seeing humidities fall to between 2% and 5% Tuesday through Thursday.”
Firefighters have made significant progress against the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles, which have all but stopped growing. The blazes, which started Jan. 7, have destroyed more than 15,000 homes and buildings, killing at least 28 people, according to Cal Fire.
More than 3 million people live in area at extreme risk of rapid fire spread Tuesday, which includes the cities of Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Irvine and Oceanside. A significantly larger zone is designated as critical risk, which encompasses the inland suburbs of San Bernardino, Glendale, Riverside and Anaheim — best known as the home of the Disneyland theme park.
Electric utilities have preemptively shut off power to homes and businesses to avoid accidentally sparking new fires. San Diego Gas & Electric had cut service to nearly 14,000 customers as of Tuesday morning, with another 70,000 targeted for possible shutoffs. Edison International’s Southern California utility has put 267,312 homes and businesses on notice of potential power cuts. More than 50,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
Top photo: An L.A. County Public Works worker red tags a building as unsafe after the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on Jan. 17.
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