Winds began gaining strength across Southern California on Tuesday, as forecasters warned of “life-threatening, destructive” gusts that could last for days while toppling trees, creating dangerous surf and bringing extreme fire risk to areas that haven't seen substantial rain in months.

For the third time since early November, parts of Southern California’s Los Angeles and Ventura counties are under a red flag warning for extreme fire danger.

The major wind event is again bringing dangerous fire weather conditions — meaning that if a fire sparks, the blaze could quickly spread into an erratic, fast-moving wildfire.