Officials warn of dangerous fire weather, potential power shutoffs in Southern California

Across the Ventura County coast communities and the Santa Clarita and San Gabriel valleys Monday night, fire crews moved their engines outside and into position-ready for high winds and extreme fire danger.

The National Weather Service put out an unusual warning on Sunday, calling this a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS).

According to NWS, the PDS Red Flag Warning is issued for Monday night through Wednesday as “a strong, widespread, and long duration Santa Ana event will bring widespread critical to extremely critical fire weather conditions to many areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.”

NWS is predicting the most dangerous conditions to occur between 10 p.m. Monday and 2 p.m. Tuesday with wind gusts up to 50-80 mph, and humidities will drop to between 5 and 15%, increasing the chance for rapid fire growth.

"Conditions are now so dangerous,” warns Andrew Rorke, a senior forecaster for NWS. 

Rorke told KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell that this weather event brings a “heightened sense of danger," warning residents to prepare.

Just last month, under similar conditions, the Mountain Fire exploded in Ventura County, destroying almost 250 homes.

Now, NWS is warning of extreme fire behavior, many downed trees and power outages.

SoCal Edison also warned that up to a quarter of a million customers could lose power because downed lines could spark a monster fire.

In Malibu, city officials say SoCal Edison expected to shut off power to several circuits.

As of 10 p.m., no fires or power outages have been reported, but officials tell KTLA they expect conditions to grow more severe overnight.