Southern California is facing another round of dangerous fire weather even as crews struggle to contain wind-driven blazes that have paralyzed Los Angeles for nearly a week and killed at least 24 people.
Gusts as high as 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour are already moving across the higher terrain and interior valleys of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, where very dry conditions are expected to create "extremely critical fire-weather,” the U.S. Storm Prediction Center said. The winds were forecast to pick up after sunset Monday, with the strongest gusts expected overnight and into Tuesday.
Extreme fire conditions are forecast across 2,926 square miles (7,578 square kilometers), whipping flames with gusts that could reach 75 mph — similar to the wind speeds that caused the fires to explode last week. More than 8 million people in the area face critical fire weather in the coming days.
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