Red flag warnings have been issued for parts of the Sacramento Valley, Lake County, northeastern California and near Tahoe as Saturday shapes up to be a windy day across the northern part of the state.
The National Weather Service’s Reno office is warning that Saturday will be “one of the windiest days we’ve had in months.” The strongest winds are expected Saturday afternoon and evening, when gusts could exceed 80 mph along exposed Sierra ridges and reach 65 mph along exposed stretches of Highway 395 and 55 mph at lower elevations around Tahoe.
Strong winds and low humidity will overlap across portions of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding foothills, where a red flag warning runs from 11 a.m. Saturday through 11 a.m. Monday. North Ops, Northern California’s interagency wildfire coordination center, has designated the Sacramento Valley and foothills as a high-risk area Saturday.
Forecasters cited strong winds, flammable grass and shrub fuels and Burning Index values near or above the 90th percentile. The index estimates how difficult a fire could be to contain based on its potential flame length…