High winds that weather officials have called "life-threatening and destructive" are hitting Southern California Tuesday, sparking a major brush fire in Pacific Palisades and prompting thousands of power outages.

Kelly Curran breaks down the forecast for damaging winds in Southern California on Tuesday. This forecast is from Jan. 7 at 6 a.m.

The strongest Santa Ana winds of the season could bring a fire threat this week to Southern California, which hasn’t seen significant rain for nearly nine months.

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The Santa Ana winds occur when there is high pressure to the east, in the Great Basin, and a low-pressure system off the coast. Air masses move from high pressure to low pressure, and the more extreme the difference in the pressure, the faster the winds blow. Topography also plays a role.

Fire and wind conditions have closed several freeways and highways in impacted Southern California areas. Caltrans provided a list of fully closed highways and freeways, as of Wednesday morning. Closures are due to Palisades,

Caltrans District 7, which serves Los Angeles and Ventura counties, shared on X Wednesday various freeway and highway closures “due to fires or wind-related incidents” in the area it serves. Here’s what is closed and opened as of 10 a.

Major roads and freeways across Los Angeles County are closed Wednesday as firefighters continue to battle wildfires across the region. As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Caltrans announced that the following stretches are closed.