Terror as LA hit by unprecedented new warning amid fears 70mph winds could trigger gigantic new inferno

Fire-ravaged Los Angeles has just been placed under an unprecedented wind warning amid fears that gusts of 70mph could spark another inferno.

The National Weather Service has issued a fourth “extremely hazardous situation” warning that will go into effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday, warning that winds of up to 75 mph will continue through Wednesday afternoon.

Much of the bone-dry city is under Ventura’s new warning in much of the San Fernando Valley, while areas from San Diego to San Bernadino remain under conventional red flag warnings.

The fourth warning comes after the previous three wreaked havoc in the densely populated area this fire season, including the ongoing Palisades and Eaton fires that have become some of the deadliest in California history.

Much of the area around Malibu and the Pacific Palisades is also under the new warning, where at least 24 people have died and more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed by multiple fires.

Meteorologists warn that unusual drought-like conditions have turned the city into a potential flashpoint as strong winds pick up.

The last significant rainfall in downtown Los Angeles occurred in May 2024, and only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen since Oct. 1 — compared to a historical average of 5.34 inches by then, the report reports. LA times.

Climatologist Bill Patzert told the newspaper that “the past nine months have been among the driest in recorded history dating back to 1900. In my career, I have never seen the severe events in Santa Ana so overwhelming the normal winter rainy season.”

Firefighters in the affected area are overwhelmed by the fast-spreading fires as the state’s response is closely watched

In each of the three previous cases where ‘particularly dangerous situation’ fire warnings were issued this season, the resulting fires wreaked havoc on the area.

The first in November, the Ventura County Mountain Fire, burned nearly 20,000 acres and destroyed more than 240 buildings.

The following month, the Franklin Fire hit Malibu, destroying 20 buildings, before this month’s Palisades and Eaton fires broke out and marked the most dangerous and destructive yet.

According to the LA Times, the “extremely hazardous condition” warning has traditionally only been used by the National Weather Service for particularly destructive tornadoes.

But in 2020, the NWS office in Oxnard, California also adopted it, as it warned of increasingly extreme fire conditions in the region.

‘Any form of warning with a red flag is dangerous. But even within that range of situations there is a gradient, so we wanted a way to convey the extremes of the extremes. And that’s where the PDS came from,” NWS meteorologist Ryan Kittell said this week.

If a small fire breaks out, he says, conditions in the area are primed for a rapid spread that firefighters will find difficult to contain.

“These winds could certainly fan some of those hotspots and reignite the fires,” Kittell added. “If you do encounter a break, don’t expect the event to be over or for the forecast to be wrong. Stay vigilant throughout Wednesday as the winds could really spike at any time.”

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