California braces for critical wildfire weather amid high winds, heat 

Strong winds, low humidity and dry vegetation will bring fire danger to much of the interior of California this week, meteorologists said Wednesday.

A fire monitoring will be in place from Thursday morning through Friday night, the National Meteorological Service office in Sacramento said.

Meteorologists have indicated that northerly and easterly winds will be caused by a weather system that will pass to the east. Winds will start to increase on Thursday morning and will peak from Thursday night to Friday afternoon.

Stronger winds were forecast for the west side of the Sacramento Valley and the foothills of the Coastal Range.

On Wednesday, a fire that started on May 15, 2022 near Old Idyllwild Road in Banning was 80% contained on 46 acres, according to CalFire.

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California has already suffered damaging forest fires this year, including a 200-acre fire that destroyed 20 billion-dollar mansions and damaged 11 others. at Laguna Niguel last week. It was declared fully contained on Tuesday.

Southern California utility Edison told the state utilities commission that there was electrical “circuit activity” at the time the fire was lit.

In Los Angeles, a fire that broke out on bush slopes below the Griffith Observatory was stopped after burning 6 acres on Tuesday afternoon.

“California continues to experience longer seasons of forest fires as a direct result of climate change,” Cal Fire’s outlook for 2022 said, citing the drought that lasted from January to spring.

“These continuous drought conditions with above-normal temperatures during the spring will leave fuel moisture levels lower than normal, increasing the potential for forest fire activity,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.