SAN FRANCISCO – Residents of highly populated areas in California are being urged to exercise caution around fire sources as several factors combine to dramatically increase the risk of blazes Monday – and even more so later in the week.
More than 25 million of the state’s 39 million people will be under red flag warnings or fire weather watches this week because of warm temperatures, low humidity and powerful winds, as high as 80 mph in some elevations, strong enough to qualify for a hurricane.
“Gusty easterly winds and low relative humidity will support elevated to critical fire weather over coastal portions of California today into Thursday,’’ the National Weather Service said Monday.
The offshore air currents, known as Santa Ana winds in Southern California and Diablo winds in the San Francisco Bay Area, have been blamed in the past for knocking down power lines and igniting wildfires, then quickly spreading them amid dry vegetation.
In a warning for Los Angeles and Ventura counties that applied to Sunday night and all of Monday, the NWS office in Los Angeles said wind gusts in the mountains – typically the hardest areas for firefighters to reach – could fluctuate from 55 to 80 mph.