Strong winds headed toward Southern California are being described by the National Weather Service as “life-threatening” and “destructive.”
“Widespread damaging winds are expected across most of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, and the areas encircled are the locations of greatest concern and most destructive winds,” according to NWS. The agency added that there is also a high risk for “dangerous fire weather conditions.”
The agency also called it a “Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag warning event in much of L.A. and Eastern Ventura counties.”
Rich Thompson, a meteorologist for the NWS, explained to KNX News’ Jon Baird what that means.
“It's a time period of really, really Intense fire weather conditions that we're expecting a combination of wind gusts in excess of 60 MPH, humidity is dropping down to 10% or less, and critically dry fuels,” he said. “And based on our forecast, we're expecting that situation to develop later today and continue through Wednesday afternoon. That's why we have the PDS in areas such as. the Santa Monica, San Gabriel, and San Fernando Valleys, Hollywood Hills, Malibu, Eastern Ventura County Valley, such as Simi Valley and Moore Park in areas like that.”
Andrew Rourke, senior forecaster with NWS, told KNX News’ Jon Baird that the peak of the winds will be Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.
“It means that the winds will be stronger, so the mountain winds will be gusting anywhere from 80 to perhaps even 100 miles an hour,” he said. “The humidity will be dropping into the teens and perhaps even the single digits, and those two things combining with the very dry fuels will make that the most dangerous situation in that time frame.”
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
Rourke added that the winds will be stronger than the ones in the Camarillo Fire back in November.
“The Camarillo Fire wast more of a combination of very, very low humidities and very strong winds,” he said. “This was more of a combination of very, very strong winds and slightly higher humidities.”
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents part of the county being impacted by the strongest winds, urged residents to prepare in the event a fire breaks out.
“It's important to be prepared,” she told L.A.’s Morning News. “We in L.A. County have got a list of what you need to take with you and what you need to have ready to grab quickly.”
That list can be found here.
SoCal Edison said they have crews who are “ready to quickly and safe
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM