PETERSBURG – The National Weather Service has upgraded the severity of weather-induced fire hazards for Wednesday from a watch to a warning as the area officially welcomes a change of seasons.
Late Tuesday night, the NWS office in Wakefield issued a “red flag warning” for the same region for which it previously had issued a “fire weather watch.” That watch has been cancelled in lieu of the new warning.
A red flag warning means “critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now…. or will shortly,” NWS said in a statement on its website. Even though it was issued Tuesday night, the warning goes into effect at 10 a.m. Wednesday and continues until 8 p.m.
The warning zone stretches from Fredericksburg and Charlottesville southward to the Virginia-North Carolina state line and encompasses all of the Tri-City area.
“A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior,” NWS said.
The average humidity level for the Petersburg area at this time of year is around 60%. Wednesday’s level is expected to be far lower than that, at around 25%, NWS said.