Winds began gaining strength across Southern California on Tuesday, as forecasters warned of powerful, dry gusts that could bring down trees, damage homes and bring 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.

Winds will whip up and humidity levels will drop in Southern California this week, raising the risk for wildfires in parched areas still recovering from a recent destructive blaze, forecasters warned Monday.

Strong winds — with gusts as high as 79 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains — began blowing their way through Southern California on Tuesday morning, Jan. 7, leading to the possibility of downed trees and wires, power outages and dangerous fire weather.