California Wildfires: New Warnings For LA and San Diego Amid High Winds

Red flag warnings for fire have been issued across Los Angeles and San Diego as the Santa Ana winds continue to blow.

This comes after over 40,000 acres of Los Angeles were scorched by several intense wildfires in the course of the last two weeks.

The strong winds that were fanning the flames dropped temporarily, brining respite to the blazes, but have since picked back up again, and caused new fires to pop up across the Los Angeles and San Diego regions.

"A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly," the NWS said in a statement. "Use extreme caution with anything that can spark a wildfire."

Flames from the Palisades Fire burning homes on January 7, 2025 in Malibu, California (main) and NWS map of areas under a Red Flag Warning (inset, pink areas). Eric Thayer/Getty Images / NWS

Wind speeds of up to 40 mph, with gusts as high as 65mph, have been forecast across San Diego, with 50 mph gusts in Los Angeles. Humidity may drop as low as 4 percent in San Diego, and down to 2 percent in parts of Los Angeles.

"If fire ignition occurs, conditions are favorable for extreme fire behavior and rapid fire growth, which would threaten life and property," the NWS said.

These warnings will remain in place until 8 p.m. local time on Thursday.

On January 21, the Lilac fire started burning in San Diego County's Bonsall, along with several others nearby. While the others were extinguished, the Lilac fire is still burning, destroying four structures and forcing evacuations.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Clay fire started burning in Los Angeles' Riverside, also triggering evacuations.

The Lilac fire is currently 85 acres in size and is 50 percent contained, while the Clay fire is at 38 acres and is 40 percent contained. Evacuations around both fires have since been lifted, and people have returned to their homes.

"The forward rate of spread has been stopped. Fire crew will continue to build containment lines and extinguish hotspots within the fire's perimeter," Cal Fire said in a statement on the Lilac fire.

These fires come after 27 people across Los Angeles were killed by the two largest of the recent wildfires, the Eaton and Palisades fires. These blazes destroyed over 12,000 structures, including much of the Pacific Palisades, and forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes.

The Eaton fire is now 91 percent contained, while the Palisades fire is 68 percent contained.

In what may be both a blessing and a curse, rain may finally be heading to Southern California in the coming days. This will help firefighters extinguish the fires still burning, however, may trigger mudflows in the areas that have been scorched in the blazes.

This is what happened in the town of Montecito in 2018, when heavy rain in the wake of a wildfire caused the weakened hillsides to collapse in an enormous mudslide, killing 23 people.

"We are working proactively to protect firestorm-affected communities from potential landslides and flooding," California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a post on X on Tuesday.

"Firefighting crews right now are filling sandbags to be placed in impacted areas to protect communities in the event of winter storms."

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