The National Weather Service plans to issue a red flag warning of critical fire weather conditions including gusty winds and low relative humidity, effective Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon,

Dozens of communities are now under mandatory evacuation orders in Southern California with evacuation warnings affecting dozens more as crews continued battling a pair of deadly wildfires in the region Friday.

We've seen reports about Los Angeles County being under "fire weather watch" and "red flag warning." What is the difference?

Dire warnings have been issued for the Los Angeles area, with a dangerous threat for the strongest wind event in more than a decade. Outages and extreme fire behaviours are major risks

The winds will come and go, with the strongest gusts expected early next week, especially next Monday night and into Tuesday, forecasters said.

Although the strongest wind gusts have passed through the Southern California region, another "traditional Santa Ana wind event" will move in Thursday night.

Santa Ana winds are expected to ramp up early next week, creating the critical fire weather that helped fuel the wildfires across the region. Meanwhile, a major winter storm that has brought record snow,