Wind gusts could reach 100 mph in some spots as SoCal faces another day of dangerous fire weather
With a destructive fire burning out of control in Ventura County, Southern California faces another day of intense winds and dry conditions.
That has firefighters across the region on high alert.
By Thursday afternoon, the fire had burned 19,643 acres with zero containment. Numerous homes were lost.
Conditions
The National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert, warning of “widespread, extreme fire weather conditions" through Thursday morning. That elevated warning hadn't been issued in the Los Angeles area since 2020.
Forecasters are predicting slightly better conditions around the Mountain fire on Thursday with wind speeds decreasing in the afternoon, weather service officials said.
In Ventura County, wind gusts were so strong that some firefighting aircraft could not operate at times on Wednesday.
Wide swaths of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as well as the Inland Empire, parts of the Orange County and the mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties should see high-wind or standard red flag warnings expire late Thursday.
A blowing dust advisory and air quality alerts due to smoke and ash are also in effect Thursday.
Read more: Mountain fire's stunning toll: 132 structures destroyed, 88 damaged
Forecast
Red flag warnings remain in effect across the region through Thursday at 6 p.m. The warnings have been extended to Friday morning in the Ventura County mountains, the Interstate 5 corridor and the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.
Thursday's winds, while not quite as strong as Wednesday's, will still be dangerous, the weather service said.
Winds pushing the fire southwest could sustain speeds of 30 to 55 mph with gusts as high as 100 mph in wind-prone mountainous locations Thursday, Ventura County emergency officials warned.
Winds will lessen but still be an issue Friday.
Read more: Multiple homes burned as Ventura County fire explodes to 14,000 acres, trapping residents
Fire behavior
The high winds sparked several fires Wednesday, the biggest being the Mountain fire in Ventura County.
Firefighters reported that during the battle Wednesday, they saw embers starting new spot fires 2½ miles ahead of the main fire line.
Almost 70,000 utility customers across the Southland have lost power as of Thursday morning “due to heightened wildfire risk,” according to Southern California Edison. About a third of the shutoffs were initiated in Ventura County, but power was also cut in areas across Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Orange counties. An additional 257,000 were being considered for safety shutoffs in those areas Thursday, as were customers in Santa Barbara and Tulare counties, SCE reported.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
