California wildfires: A light gleams at the end of a dark, smoky tunnel

Conditions are finally beginning to improve:

There were growing signs of optimism Wednesday in the battle against the Southern California wildfires -- the largest natural disaster in the United States since Hurricane Katrina.

Winds that blew as hard as 101 mph on Sunday dropped to 75 mph on Monday, 50 mph on Tuesday and continued to ease Wednesday.

As conditions improved officials allowed people to return to communities that had been off-limits because of intense flames and dense smoke.

Meanwhile, dry Santa Ana winds that have fanned the flames, changed direction and began blowing inland from the Pacific Ocean, increasing the humidity and easing the burden on almost 8,900 firefighters in the area.

A quarter of a hundred thousand homes remain threatened, and the fire danger is still very real, but the outlook is finally improving.