Particularly Dangerous Fire Weather Returns to California Today; Could Create More Havoc After A Weekend Weather Break

A fire-ravaged neighborhood in California. Another spell
of extreme fire danger is starting in the Los Angles area
this afternoon, lasting at least into Tuesday.

Here we go again. It just doesn't end.

Southern California is now under big time fire warnings as the super dry winter continues and another round of exceptionally dangerous fire weather kicks in again. 

For the third time this month, the National Weather Service has issued what I guess was a once rare "particularly dangerous situation" warning for the fires. 

The hardest hit areas should have gusts in the 50 to 70 mph range this afternoon through Tuesday morning. Mountain areas could see gusts between 80 and 100 mph. 

Those kinds of winds would once again create extreme fire behavior and send embers miles ahead of the main blaze to start new blazes. If any fires start in this region today or tonight, they're absolutely screwed. 

Communities at highest risk include Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Ventura, Oxnard and once again Malibu, which was hard hit during the last go-around with fires. 

"'All of the alarm bells are ringing and all of the lights are flashing red,' UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a briefing Sunday," as the Washington Post reports.

As in previous wind events this month, utilities are considering shutting off power to wind-prone electrical lines so that they don't spark fires if they snap in the gusts.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has deployed additional firefighters to southern California to get a jump on any new fires that might start. 

NOAA's Fire Weather Forecast warns of extremely critical fire weather in and near the San Gabriel, Santa Monica and Santa Susana Mountains in southern California.

Although the winds will abate somewhat Tuesday afternoon, they'll continue dry and gusty at least into Thursday, continuing the fire threat. 

 The San Diego area and the mountains to its east are also under the gun for strong, dry winds today that  could set off fast moving, scary fires there.  The San Diego area has so far been spared the worst of this month's California fire nightmare. I'm not sure it will continue, but let's hope so

The renewed winds could undo some real progress over the past few days with the giant wildfires. As far as I've heard, no additional houses have burned down in recent days. 

NBC4 in Los Angeles reported as of Sunday, the biggest blaze, the Palisades Fire, is at the halfway point of containment, and has so far burned 23,700 acres. It has so far destroyed 3,857 structures, if you include residential, commercial and other buildings. It has damaged 628 other structures.

The Eaton Fire, the one that chewed through neighborhoods in Altadena, is more than three-quarters contained. This fire was even more calamitous than the other one, having destroyed 9,300 homes, businesses and other buildings and damaged 1,044 others, says NBC 4. 

So far the death toll is 27, with 31 additional people reported as missing. I'm praying today and tomorrow don't make this statistic worse.

There is some hope. The forecast is a little iffy, but there's at least the possibility of rain -finally - in southern California this weekend. It's unknown how much rain will fall. It could be a bust, it could be a decent half inch of water.  

Let's hope that storm ends up materializing@ 

 What would take if you had minutes to leave?  The Washington Post had a great article in which they asked people who fled what they hastily grabbed as the flames bore down on their houses.

Really a great read.