Wind-whipped wildfire blew through communities of every socioeconomic status and stripe, merging, psychically if not physically, into a kind of mega-catastrophe.

Southern California faces "extremely critical fire weather" with powerful winds that will result in "widespread" downed trees, power lines and electricity outages Tuesday and Wednesday, the National Weather Service warns.

Dire warnings have been issued for the Los Angeles area, with a dangerous threat for the strongest wind event in more than a decade. Outages and extreme fire behaviours are major risks