Santa Ana winds will be building overnight, making for dangerous fire conditions on Wednesday lasting through at least Thursday afternoon.
Here's the timing for wind and fire danger over the next few days:
TONIGHT: Winds increasing, mainly for the foothills/mountains, peak gusts 40 to 50mph
WEDNESDAY: Windiest day. Winds peaking in the morning, isolated gusts 60mph+. Late morning, early afternoon, winds spread to the west, gusting 20 to 40mph at the coast. Fire danger critical from late morning through mid afternoon.
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THURSDAY: Driest day. Brief increase in winds over the mountains. Other than that, winds decreasing, but very dry, with relative humidity down below 10%.
FRIDAY: Less windy, still dry, fire danger slightly elevated for far eastern parts of the county.
A HIGH WIND WARNING is now in effect, and includes the mountains, valleys, and coast. The RED FLAG WARNING goes into effect 4am Wednesday through 6pm Thursday for the valleys and mountains.
Weather
What makes this particular Santa Ana dangerous is the lack of recent rain. San Diego is off to one of its driest starts to the rainy season on record. It has been nearly a month since we've had rain. Fuel moisture is very low. So, even a small fire can grow very quickly.
WEDNESDAY
- Coast: Wind warning - highs in upper 60s to low 70s
- Valleys: Red Flag Warning - low 70s
- Mountains: Red Flag Warning, cold - upper 40s to low 50s
- Desert: Breezy - upper 60s
