Red Flag Warning Firefighters on Patrol

The National Weather Service has upgraded a fire weather watch that was issued for the Bay Area this morning into a red flag warning today due to the increased chance of dry lightning.

Normally, precipitation would put out any sparks from lighting during a storm. Dry lightning, strikes without any accompanying rain, usually in the hills or mountains. Several major fires still burning in California were caused by dry lightning.

Dry lightning strikes occur when the air next to the ground is very dry and the bottoms of thunderstorms are more than 10,000 feet above the ground, which causes the rain falling from the storms to evaporate before it hits the ground.

As a precaution, the San Jose Fire Department has staffed extra personnel and equipment to patrol critical fire areas in the East Foothills and Almaden Hills. These Firefighters will be patrolling from 10am to 10pm today and possibly tomorrow depending on the weather conditions.


Posted by: Captain, Alberto Olmos, Public Information Officer
Submitted by: Captain, Curtis Jacobson, San Jose Fire Department