As winds across the Southern California area are calmer than their peak and firefighters are making progress, the threat to the fire-weary region remains with Santa Ana winds expected to continue in the coming days.

Parched Southern California endured more dangerous winds on Wednesday but could get some needed rain this weekend, dampening prospects of another round of deadly wildfires while raising the possibility of new challenges like toxic ash runoff.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday extended its red flag warning for Southern California until Thursday evening.

Southern California will see its first significant rainfall event of the winter over the weekend, but it’ll have to get through a couple more days of fire weather first. The National Weather Service warned that single-digit humidity and strong wind gusts on Thursday and into early Friday could create critical fire weather conditions throughout the