LOS ANGELES — Power to tens of thousands of people had been shut off by Monday night as utilities worked to mitigate the impacts of Southern California’s notorious Santa Ana winds, whose strong gusts could damage electrical equipment and spark wildfires.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for high fire risk with a rare “particularly dangerous situation,” or PDS, designation starting at 8 p.m. Monday into Tuesday for Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The last time PDS red flags went up was the first week of November, when powerful, dry winds fed the Mountain Fire, which destroyed at least 240 buildings, mostly homes, in Ventura County. Before that, a PDS red flag warning hadn’t been issued for the region since 2020.
“This event has the potential to be as strong as the November 5th-6th Santa Ana event that led to the Mountain Fire,” the weather service office for Los Angeles said Sunday on social media.