California fires weather forecast: More than 8M people are in critical fire risk zone

Southwestern California stays in severe fire risk in the days ahead, as red flag alerts persist under the dry and windy conditions that are fanning deadly wildfires in the Los Angeles region.

Over 8 million people are in an extremely dangerous area for wildfires. The risk of fires will remain extremely high until at least Monday, and likely will stay the same into Tuesday and Wednesday, with no quick improvement expected.

On Saturday night and into Sunday morning, wind speeds were between 35 and 55 miles per hour, with gusts reaching up to 70 miles per hour in the mountainous areas surrounding Los Angeles.

A red flag warning is still in effect for much of Southern California until Wednesday, with extremely dry conditions and gusty Santa Ana winds that are blowing at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour.

Los Angeles holds the record tie for the driest six-month period from July to January, sharing the title with the 1962-63 period, with a total of only 0.16 inches of rainfall.

California fires weather forecast: Nearly 10 million people are being alerted for potentially ominous fire conditions.

Across that timeframe, the average temperature has been 4.2 degrees higher this year compared to 1962/63. As a result, the ground is likely to be notably drier in 2024/25 than it was during the last period of similar rainfall back in 1962/63.

A dangerous and potentially life-threatening wind warning with gusts up to 100 mph has been issued due to a "Particularly Dangerous Situation".

This is the most severe weather warning the National Weather Service can issue, and it is extremely rare to see this type of alert.

ABC News' Nadine El-Bawab helped report this story.