Hughes Fire spreads rapidly, prompting thousands of evacuations

AccuWeather

AccuWeather California expert Ken Clark breaks down the conditions leading to the extreme growth of the Hughes Fire near Castaic, California.

Transcript

00:00Santa Ana winds have been howling at times this weekend. The threat from

00:04wildfires is still a big problem keeping Californians on edge. Yeah for the very

00:09latest we turn to AccuWeather California expert Ken Clark. Thanks for

00:12being with us Ken. Sure. Yeah Ken we have big concerns as just extremely rapid

00:19fire spread has taken over over the past three or four hours near Castaic Lake.

00:23Can you tell us the latest on what you're aware of with that fire? The

00:27latest is that the acreage was over 5,000 acres. It's more than that now

00:32looking at what's going on. Evacuation orders and warnings are out. About, I've

00:37been checking my figures, 19,000 people right now under evacuation orders. That

00:41means you have to get out. 15,000 people under evacuation warnings and those

00:46numbers are likely to go up and right now the I-5, the whole I-5 corridor from

00:52near Castaic all the way northward to Grapevine Road is closed, totally closed.

00:57The major route out of Southern California into the Central Valley is

01:01now closed. Well we're seeing on the right side of the screen a lot of the

01:06smoke from it this fire. This is having big impacts here and this is amid

01:11another Santa Ana wind event. Yeah the winds right now in that area are blowing

01:15anywhere from 25 to 45 miles per hour and those winds are likely to go up as

01:20we go through this evening and tonight into tomorrow. The humidity levels are as

01:24low as they get. They're in the single digits as low as two, three percent in

01:28some areas. So this is really helping to fuel this fast-moving fire. We got very

01:33dry conditions. We've got the wind and the winds are going to come up even more.

01:38Right now that fire has been mostly on the east side of Castaic Lake but all

01:43this housing developments, all the businesses are on the west side of the

01:47lake and that is where the fire is just starting to get into now. So the most

01:51serious problems are from here on out as the fire moves west and southwest. It

01:56looks like a lot of the population is at west but also kind of the southwest

01:59corner I guess below the dam and so forth. It appears that and west of there.

02:03That's correct and this is why there's they're so concerned about this. The

02:09winds, the rapid spread of this fire and now that we're getting into more of a

02:13residential area and they've extended the evacuation orders now into Ventura

02:18County as well. So you know this is the seriousness of this situation. If it gets

02:22west of the I-5 corridor, gets to the I-5 corridor and west of there, there are a

02:27lot of houses and a lot of businesses in that area. And Ken we do want to briefly

02:32look ahead to the weekend because there are some changes on the way that are

02:36going to help with the wildfire danger. There is a likelihood of rain this

02:41weekend especially from late Saturday through the day Sunday maybe lingering

02:46into Monday. We expect showers maybe even a thunderstorm. Rainfall amounts

02:51will depend on where this load goes to but if anything the models have been

02:55inching upward in the rainfall amounts. It's good news and bad news. We're not

03:00right now looking at maybe half-inch to maybe three-quarters of an inch rain

03:03with local amounts to one inch. Unfortunately when that falls on all

03:07this ash, all the bare ground we already have, we're looking at maybe some

03:13more problems just because of that. So you know we're going from one thing to

03:16the other but at least we need the rain so we've got to take the rain when we can

03:20get it. It's gonna be much much cooler as well. Snow will fall in the mountains.

03:24All right Ken, well we will be closely watching that situation. We appreciate

03:28your insight as always. We need the rain. Very concerned about places like

03:32Altadena when that rain picks back up because well it's going to flow downhill

03:37and you got populated areas in Pasadena down the hill there. We have a lot of

03:41ash just laying there and that rainfall is going to move when the rain falls so

03:46it's it's not a good situation with rain either. Yeah we need the rain but it's a

03:51catch-22. Ken, we appreciate your insight as always. We'll continue to follow this

03:55fire near Castaic Lake as well. Thanks again for joining us Ken. You're welcome.

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