Another round of powerful, dry winds to raise wildfire risk across Southern California

Winds will whip up and humidity levels will drop in Southern California this week, raising the risk for wildfires in parched areas still recovering from a recent destructive blaze, forecasters warned Monday.

Gusts could reach 80 mph (129 kph) across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties as winds intensify Tuesday into Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

“Scattered downed trees and power outages are likely, in addition to rapid fire growth and extreme behavior with any fire starts,” the weather service office for Los Angeles said on X.

Areas where gusts blowing across tinder-dry vegetation could create “extreme fire conditions” include the charred footprint of last month’s wind-driven Franklin Fire, which damaged or destroyed 48 structures, mostly homes, in and around Malibu.

The blaze was one of nearly 8,000 wildfires that scorched more than 1 million acres (more than 404,600 hectares) in the Golden State last year.

Recent dry winds, including the notorious Santa Anas, have contributed to warmer-than-average temperatures in Southern California, where there’s been very little rain so far this season. Meanwhile, up north, there have been multiple drenching storms so far this season.

The “extreme precipitation disparity” between the northern and southern parts of the state is expected to persist throughout the winter, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The Northern California weather systems “have been relatively warm storms, too, maintaining overall warmer than average temperatures across nearly all of California in recent weeks,” Swain wrote Saturday in an update on his website.

Southern California hasn’t seen more than 0.1 inches (0.25 centimeters) of rain since early May. Much of the region has fallen into moderate drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Portions of San Diego County have seen the driest start to the season — and driest nine-month period overall — in over 150 years, Swain wrote.