Over 1,100 firefighters were “strategically pre-positioned” across Southern California to address "ongoing critical fire weather," Cal Fire said.

The National Weather Service has extended a Red Flag Warning until Friday morning for San Diego County's inland valleys and mountains.

An uptick in Santa Ana winds Wednesday afternoon through Thursday, combined with critically dry vegetation and low humidity, will result in elevated to locally critical fire weather conditions in County through late Thursday.

Santa Ana winds finally delivered a big, direct hit on San Diego County Tuesday, gusting as high as 102 mph in the backcountry where a touch of long-overdue rain could arrive this weekend.

Several counties in Southern California faced "critical" fire risks this week, according to an AccuWeather forecast.

With the strongest of the winds in the inland valleys and mountains of San Diego County on Monday night through Tuesday morning, the highest wind gusts of 102 mph were recorded in Sill Hill, near Julian. This is a typical wind-prone area in the mountains known for exceptionally high wind gusts, offshore and onshore.

A high wind warning was issued by the NWS San Diego CA on Wednesday at 12:04 p.m. valid for Thursday between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. The warning is for San Bernardino and Riverside County Valleys-The Inland Empire,

Strong winds fueled fires across Santa Ana in California. Dramatic footage shows a plume of smoke rising from a hillside, with strong winds swaying trees in the foreground on3. Reports indicated the large vegetation fire started Thursday afternoon on a hilltop near the US-Mexico border.

The last time it was this dry in January, there were barely more than 500 people in San Diego. The year was 1850, and only a quarter-inch of rain had fallen in six months. It made the region ripe for wildfire — but that wasn’t much of a concern. The city’s population was clustered along the coast, far from the backcountry, where most fires burned.

San Diego County expects rain and mountain snow after severe Santa Ana winds and wildfires across Southern California, marking a hopeful turn in a dry water year.

SAN DIEGO, California — Firefighters were able to quickly stop a vegetation fire in Clairemont near Westbound SR-52 and Genesee Ave. on Friday morning that was sending large plumes of white smoke into the air.