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The Franklin Fire is burning in Malibu is caused by dangerous winds, dry conditions and low humidity, which can cause the fire to explode.
Around the time the fire broke out, wind gusts of up to 100 km/h were reported. Around 3:30 a.m. the winds weakened slightly, with gusts in the 60 mph range, said National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall.
Unlike the 2018 Woolsey fire, water-dropping planes were able to fly at night.
But Hall said patterns from previous wind events in Santa Ana “suggest that winds should increase around daybreak,” which occurs around 6:50 a.m.
Relative humidity was less than 5% in the fire area Tuesday morning – extremely dry.
The National Weather Service office had issued a rare red flag warning of an “extremely hazardous situation” that would last until 2 p.m. Tuesday in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The high wind warning is expected to last until 1pm on Tuesday.
And a regular red flag warning — meaning the National Weather Service has high confidence that dangerous fire conditions will exist — is expected to continue through Wednesday afternoon.
Areas within the particularly dangerous situation include large parts of Ventura County, such as Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Oxnard, Fillmore and Ojai, as well as places like Malibu, Canoga Park, Santa Clarita and Acton in LA County.
The area is particularly dry. Since the water year began on October 1, only 0.14 inches of rain has fallen in downtown Los Angeles. That is sharply below average for this time of the season, when an average of 1.87 centimeters has already fallen.
There isn’t much hope for rain for Los Angeles and Ventura counties this coming week.
“We don’t see any significant rain prospects for the LA area this coming week,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Robbie Munroe. “It will probably stay dry.”
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