California gets rare 'extreme fire danger' warning due to strong Santa Ana winds

United States' National Weather Service has issued a warning about the rare extreme fire danger due to Santa Ana Wind across Ventura, Los Angeles, and the San Diego county mountains.

"This is a particularly dangerous situation due to an unusual duration of extremely dry vegetation, strong winds, and very dry air leading to very critical fire weather conditions," the NWS wrote in an online update. The agency issued a 'Red Flag Warnings' that immediately went into effect as the authorities warned about the event of an unprepared wildfire in the region. 

"Santa Ana winds are starting to ramp up in the mountains, Magic Mountain Truck Trail just reported a gust," NWS informed. It added that the winds at Camarillo Airport shifted the gusting to 28 mph and the dew point dropped to 14F. Meanwhile at Oxnard Airport (~ 9 miles west) winds were still NW and the dewpoint was 54F, the weather service informed, adding, that the Santa Ana winds were mostly 'dry'.

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At least two wildfires burning

The high-speed and dangerous Santa Ana winds pick up periodically from the mountainous region along the coast in Southern California, leading to the building of strong and excessively high pressure across the interior West. As per reports, there are at least two wildfires burning in the east of San Diego and a fire explosion has been recorded in Silverado Canyon, spreading the flames rapidly, engulfing 1,070 acres. 

As the Santa Ana winds at 35-45 mph combine with dry atmospheric conditions and warm temperatures, Los Angeles and Orange counties might witness the wildfires, as well as the Inland Empire region might go up in flames, NWS warned. People were advised to restrict movement in place, many in areas at greater risk were evacuated by the authorities and the first responders. 

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(Image Credit: AP)