A rapidly spreading blaze in California is impacting communities in the Los Angeles area as thousands have been placed under evacuation orders, officials said.

Temperatures in the area are near 100 degrees and humidity as low as 15 percent. The southern part of California has seen very little rain, drying out vegetation and making it "ripe to burn," the National Weather Service (NWS) for Los Angeles warned.

The state's latest blaze erupted on Thursday afternoon and spread to more than 4,800 acres in a matter of hours, fire officials say.