Wildfires: High winds bring Red Flag Warning, forecasters say

Sept. 19--On the day the largest wildfire in California's recorded history officially was contained fully, the National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a warning that chances are optimum for another fast-spreading fire to start.

A weather pattern that forecasters called perfectly normal for the beginning of fall brought with it a Red Flag Warning for the East Bay hills, Diablo Range and Santa Cruz Mountains.

The weather agency said the warning will go into effect at 11 p.m. Wednesday and run through 5 p.m. Thursday. The warning means that critical fire weather conditions are expected.

The higher territories in Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties also are under warning.

Northerly winds were expected to gain in intensity through Wednesday evening and dry out the vegetation even more than it has been during a summer that has seen enormous wildfires burn up and down the state, the weather service said.

"It's a completely typical fall weather pattern," meteorologist Matt Mehle said. "There is high pressure inland and lower pressure off the coast, and that's creating the winds. Those winds are going to be going downward at the mountains. The brush is already dry. That kind of pattern dries it out even more."

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The winds are expected to blow with gusts up to 20 mph on the ridges until Wednesday night, when they may increase to 35 mph into Thursday, the weather service said. Humidity will be in the 20 percent range Wednesday, then drop into single digits Thursday morning.

Fires that may start are expected to spread rapidly.

The red flag warning came hours after the U.S. Forest Service announced that the Mendocino Complex Fire is 100 percent contained. That blaze, which started as the River and Ranch fires in different areas of Mendocino County, burned 459,123 acres or 719 square miles -- larger than the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles combined.

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