Dry and windy weather is in store across San Diego County.
Strong Santa Ana winds are expected from Wednesday evening into Thursday afternoon.
Those winds and other unfavorable weather conditions have led to the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing a fire weather watch.
"Fire weather watch means that conditions could lead to (a) red flag (warning). And what that means is we could see strong wind and very low humidity over our foothills and mountains where a lot of our critical dry fuel is sitting right now," said NWS meteorologist Alex Tardy.
He said this midweek event is expected to be the strongest and most widespread Santa Ana winds in the region so far this year.
"Now you can set up by making sure your leaves are picked up, that you don't have piles of brush near your house. Make sure that there's defensible space if you live in the foothills and the lower elevations of the mountains," Tardy said. "Because we know what happens when all these ingredients meet up."
Cal Fire is ready and fully staffed at all 42 stations countywide ahead of the fire weather watch event.
Cal Fire captain Mike Cornette said as conditions change, they have "the capabilities to bring on extra staffing, extra fire engines, hand crews (and) dozers."
Cornette said Cal Fire can also move some of its firefighting aircraft around. While none of those plans are currently in effect, this time of year is peak fire season in the region, and currently, the vegetation is dry due to a lack of rain.
"The moisture in the fuel is to a critical point to where it's going to be able to let the fire grow faster and kind of pre-burn; compared to if the fuel is greener, it can be a little bit slower,” Cornette said.
As of Monday evening, no red flag warning has been issued in San Diego County. However, red flag warnings are in effect in neighboring Riverside and Orange counties, and also in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
