The National Weather Service has upgraded a Fire Weather Watch to a Red Flag Warning for the mountains, hills and valleys in the North Bay and East Bay starting Thursday evening because of a slight chance of thunderstorms that could bring wildfire-sparking lightning.
The warning is in effect starting at 5 p.m. Thursday and is set to expire at 11 a.m. Friday, with the chance of thunderstorms initially starting over Napa and Sonoma counties before moving into the East Bay overnight, according to the weather service.
There may be some precipitation associated with the storm, but it would not be enough to extinguish any fires started by lightning due to the extremely dry vegetation in the region, weather service officials said.
Forecasters emphasized that the system “is not currently anticipated to be a repeat of the August 2020 dry lightning event” that caused devastating wildfires throughout the Bay Area.
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