Strong Santa Ana winds, gusting up to 65 mph, are returning to inland and mountain areas, triggering a red flag warning across Southern California.

Winds will peak Monday night into Tuesday as they move through the mountains and valleys. The strength and long duration of the winds will create extremely critical fire weather conditions in the region.

Damaging winds with gusts of 40 to 65 mph will blow through wind-prone coastal and valley areas in Los Angeles and Ventura County.

The combination of drought, wind and warm weather can lead to dangerous fire situations.

A Particularly Dangerous Situation Warning (PDS) has been issued in several districts.

“It could be several years before we see a PDS, but we actually had it not too long ago, it was early November,” said NBCLA meteorologist Stephanie Olmos. “You may have remembered the mountain fire right here in Ventura County, that was a situation where we actually had a PDS.”

Due to the dry fuels, in addition to the strong gusts of wind, there is an increased potential for rapid spread of ignition.

The hardest hit areas will be the San Gabriel Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, the western Santa Monica Mountains to Malibu, the Ventura County valleys, the western San Fernando Valley and Camarillo to eastern Ventura.

The red flag warning is in effect from 10 a.m. Monday to 4 a.m. Wednesday.

SoCal Edison has notified more than 200,000 of its customers that they may have to turn off power during the warning.