Dangerous Santa Ana winds are expected to return to the Los Angeles area this week, potentially fueling the growth of new and existing wildfires, according to FOX Weather.

In recent days, however, the region’s powerful Santa Ana winds—which have been fanning the flames—have begun to slow down. This lull has offered firefighters a reprieve and a key opportunity to make progress against the blazes, but forecasts suggest the Santa Ana will return next week. What are these gusts, and how have they become so strong?

As wildfires rage near Los Angeles, claiming lives and homes, residents cling to hope for a wind shift. With damages projected to reach up to $275 billion, the devastation is immense, but a change in weather may offer a glimmer of relief amidst the chaos.

Multiple counties in Southern California were under red flag warnings from the NWS early Monday, with the service warning of yet another round of Santa Ana winds.

Los Angeles firefighters braced for high winds overnight into Tuesday, gusts that could fuel two monstrous wildfires that have already leveled entire neighborhoods, killed at least two dozen people, and burned an area the size of Washington,

Santa Ana winds are caused by strong high pressure over the Great Basin region of the West creating a pressure gradient that amps up winds through the mountains, foothills and sometimes valleys of Southern California. In this case, the winds are getting a major boost from a strong upper-level low pushing southward across the state.

The ferocious Santa Ana winds that helped fuel the deadly wildfires around Los Angeles are forecast to ease later Wednesday, but they may return.

With gusts reaching over 93 miles per hour, these winds are the main culprits behind the fierce spread of fires in Los Angeles.

The Santa Ana winds fanning wildfires that have killed at least 25 people in Southern California and destroyed more than 10,000 houses, businesses and other structures in Greater Los Angeles are flaring up again.

At least 24 people are believed to be dead and many more injured as several fires broke out across Southern California amid historically dry and windy conditions.

The winds fueling Southern California wildfires form when a high-pressure system develops over the Great Basin in Utah and Nevada