40K+ acres burned - Record heat, more fire weather for SoCal

It may be frigid in the eastern two-thirds, but southern California could see the mercury rise to the low 80s Wednesday as Santa Ana winds gust to 50 mph, fanning the current and future flames.

UPDATE: A brand new wildfire has erupted in Castaic, Calif., right outside of Santa Clarita. Called the Hughes Fire, firefighters are working hard to get ahold of the blaze but it has burned through more than 3,000 acres with 0 percent containment.

Dry, warm weather persists in southern California. The TemperatureRadar shows the heat building over the next two days. The warm, dry winds helping the mercury rise are also keeping fire weather conditions in place. Wednesday and Thursday are another couple of critical fire weather days.

The Santa Ana winds, blown out of the northeast and shown on the WindRadar, continue to push very dry, warm air down into the southern California valleys. These not only hinder current firefighting efforts but create the environment for more wildfires to spread. Additionally, it blows the smoke from existing wildfires into neighboring suburbs. Have you checked the air quality in your area lately?

We're only 22 days into 2025 and more than 40K acres have been burned due to the intense Santa Ana wind events fueling wildfire spread. Metro areas surrounding Los Angeles have been the main areas affected in the last two weeks, but San Diego has joined the wildfire activity list as of Tuesday, January 21, 2025.

The Lilac Fire started just after midnight local time and has burned through 85 acres in San Diego County. As of Wednesday morning, the fire is 90 percent contained according to CalFire. With dry Santa Ana winds continuing through Thursday, however, avoid anything that produces a spark as the conditions are prime for fast fire spreading.