【Women Without Innocence】

Barely two months after wildfires swept across California wine country,Women Without Innocence a strong Santa Ana wind event propelled fast-moving flames across Ventura County, California on Monday night, killing at least one and destroying more than 100 homes.

The blaze, known as the Thomas Fire, expanded from nothing to 45,500 acres in just a few hours thanks to fierce Santa Ana winds. As of Tuesday morning, local time, the fire was 0 percent contained.

The strong winds fueling and spreading the blaze also caused power outages, plunging thousands of residents of Santa Barbara and Ventura into the dark as flames rushed in.

SEE ALSO: 'We're just existing': What it was like to survive the deadly Northern California wildfires

The fire has come close to downtown Ventura, a city of more than 100,000 people about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Social media images taken by evacuating residents show nightmarish scenes of onrushing flames. According to the Ventura County Fire Department, 27,000 people have evacuated. One of the structures that succumbed to the fast-moving flames was a large apartment complex.

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Santa Ana winds blow offshore, from east to west, tapping into warm and dry conditions inland. Close to the coast, these winds compress the air coming off the hills and mountains to the east, further warming and drying out the air mass, and helping to dry out already combustible vegetation.

The fire threat had been anticipated, as the National Weather Service issued a rare "critical" fire outlook for Southern California on Tuesday due to the Santa Ana wind event. High wind warnings and red flag warnings were in effect for much of Southern California.

The Thomas Fire was visible from space, via the Suomi-NPP satellite as well as other observing platforms.

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Typically, the fire season in Southern California peaks in October, but it can occasionally flare up again in November and December. In this case, a strong area of high pressure has built in across the West, and the clockwise air circulation around that high pressure is responsible for triggering the Santa Ana wind event.

The Storm Prediction Center, which is part of the National Weather Service, issued a forecast discussion on Tuesday morning warning that fire weather conditions will further deteriorate during the day, as winds increase, humidity drops, and temperatures climb.

The Weather Service has designated parts of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernadino, and Riverside counties as being in "extremely critical" fire weather risk, which is the highest category.

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These areas could see sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, the Storm Prediction Center said, with gusts up to 80 miles per hour in hills and mountains. Relative humidity levels could drop to as low as 4 percent in these areas, the center stated.

The immediate Los Angeles metropolitan area is included in the slightly less serious zone of "critical" fire danger.

Other wildfires have popped up in this region, too, including the Creek Fire, which has spread to at least 4,000 acres just northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

The October wildfires that killed more than 40 people and destroyed more than 10,000 structures in northern California also occurred during a period when strong, dry offshore winds were present.

Such winds can allow a fire to spread quickly and erratically, including by spreading burning embers far out in front of the main blaze. This hampers firefighting efforts and can force hasty evacuations.

This story has been updated to include the development of the Creek Fire.

UPDATE Dec. 5 4:59 p.m. PT:

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti declared a state of emergency in the city late Tuesday, advising that the fire covered some 11,000 acres.

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A police officer recorded this dash footage as he drove through the California wildfire

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