A red flag warning signifying a wildfire threat will be in force until this afternoon in almost all of Los Angeles County because of strong wing gusts, high heat, low humidity and extremely dry vegetation, forecasters said.
The warning will be in force until 3 p.m. in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and San Gabriel valleys, both the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains, the Angeles National Forest, beach cities, metropolitan Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills — but not the Antelope Valley. Red flag warnings are also in force in Ventura County.
Winds will blow through the warning areas at between 15 and 30 miles per hour, gusting to 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service, which described the winds sweeping the region since late last week as the first significant Santa Ana wind event of the season. At the same time, the humidity level will be between 5 and 15 percent, and the vegetation will remain bone dry, representing highly flammable fuel if fire breaks out, forecasters said.
Temperatures, meanwhile, will remain high.
The NWS forecast sunny skies today and highs of 92 on Mount Wilson; 94 in Avalon and Palmdale; 95 at LAX and Lancaster; 100 in downtown L.A.; 101 in Long Beach and Saugus; 103 in Pasadena, San Gabriel and Burbank; and 105 in Woodland Hills.
Temperatures will decrease Tuesday — by as little as 3 degrees in some communities and by as much as 9 degrees in others — and fall again progressively over the ensuing days. By Sunday, downtown is forecast to have a high of 79, 21 degrees lower than today, and Woodland Hills will top out at 83, or 22 degrees less than today’s high.
In Orange County, where a heat advisory will be in force until 8 tonight, the NWS forecast sunny skies and highs of 91 in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach; 92 in San Clemente; 101 in Anaheim, Mission Viejo and Fullerton; 102 in Yorba Linda; and 103 in Irvine.
A steady cooling trend will get underway Tuesday. Along the coast, Newport Beach will go from 91 today to 73 Sunday. Inland, Irvine will go from 103 to 78.
