The threat of high winds is prompting California to put much of Southern California under a red flag warning. The affected area stretches from San Luis Obispo along the central coast, through Los Angeles to San Diego and its southern border with Tijuana, Mexico.
“There will likely be damaging winds gusting between 55 and 70 miles an hour across portions of the red flag warning area from early Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning,” said Cal Fire Deputy State Fire Marshal Brice Bennett on Monday, Jan. 13. “Areas in the red flag warning will have a high risk for large fires and rapid rate of spread, extreme fire behavior and long-range spotting.”
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Millions of people could see new wildfires emerge in the area, similar to the ones in Los Angeles. So far, the wildfires have destroyed thousands of buildings and killed at least 25 people.
Strong winds helped the three largest existing wildfires spread –– particularly the Santa Ana Winds, gusts bringing dry weather to much of the Southern California region.
Forecasts suggest the winds could pick up again this week, also complicating firefighters’ efforts to contain new and existing fires.
Cal Fire says it has had mixed results with the three largest fires. As of Monday afternoon, they said they contained 95% of the Hurst fire in the San Fernando Valley. They also contained 33% of the Eaton fire in Altadena and 14% of the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades.
