Red flag warnings remain in place across Southern California on Tuesday as extreme fire conditions continue.
National Weather Service meteorologists have forecast days of extreme fire behavior amid the dry, windy weather. Devastating flames have already prompted evacuations across Malibu.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department told Newsweek that the Franklin Fire ignited just before 11 p.m. local time on Monday, with firefighters on the scene by 11:03 p.m. In the hours since the ignition, the flames have exploded to 2,200 acres.
Elsewhere in the state, firefighters are working to combat vegetation fires before they can grow out of control. One such fire ignited in Ramona early Tuesday morning but has since been contained.
As of Tuesday morning, seven Southern California counties were at risk of extreme fire behavior should flames ignite. The counties are Orange, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.
Most NWS offices warned of continued Santa Ana winds, with the strongest winds expected Tuesday morning.
Relative humidity is also low, in the single digits for some locations, which contributes to red flag conditions. Residents in red flag warning areas are urged against outdoor burning.
Many of the warnings are expected to remain in place through Tuesday night or even into Wednesday.
In a red flag warning published on Monday, the NWS office in Los Angeles said: “The hardest hit areas will likely be the San Gabriels, Santa Susanas, western Santa Monicas into Malibu, Ventura County valleys (especially Simi Valley and Moorpark), western San Fernando Valley (especially Highway 118/210 corridors from Porter Ranch to San Fernando), and the hills above Camarillo into east Ventura.
“Due to the expected long duration of dangerous fire weather conditions and critically dry fuels, there is an increased risk for any new ignitions to have very rapid fire spread and extreme fire behavior.”
“As a result, there is the increasing threat for fire weather conditions to rival other historical fires in recent times including the Mountain and Thomas Fires. Dry offshore conditions will likely persist into Thursday morning, with a return of onshore flow and some humidity recovery in the afternoon,” the warning continued.
Should flames ignite, the weather conditions will contribute to rapid fire spread, meaning large fires are likely.
In addition to the flame threat, strong winds could damage trees and cause power outages.
As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 62,000 people were without power in California, with most outages reported in San Diego County, according to poweroutage.us.
The NWS office in San Diego posted on X, formerly Twitter, that winds had gusted as high as 70 mph in some places, which is almost the strength of a Category 1 hurricane.
On Tuesday, the X account for the California Department of Transportation serving San Diego said traffic had been diverted in some areas amid the strong winds.
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