A fresh California wildfire ignited north of Los Angeles Wednesday during "critical" fire weather and triggered evacuations as it quickly exploded in size across two counties on Wednesday into Thursday.

Millions of California residents were placed under a red flag warning through Thursday amid threats of further fires with looming winds in the forecast, according to multiple reports.

Meteorologists said there was a chance the winds would be as severe as those that fueled the Palisades and Eaton fires, but that different locations would likely be affected.

Southern California will continue to face "dangerous fire weather conditions" including strong Santa Ana winds and extremely low humidity through later this week, forecasters said Tuesday.