National Fire News

Strong northeasterly Santa Ana winds gusting to 80 mph amid relative humidity below 20% will continue through this afternoon. Winds will weaken slightly with gusts of 40-60 mph tonight into Thursday before ending Friday, but relative humidity will fall to 5-15% each afternoon with poor overnight recovery. Winds will remain light over the weekend, but low humidity will continue, followed by another moderate Santa Ana event likely early next week with gusts up to 60 mph. Elsewhere across the West, a drier pattern is expected for the next week, although a weak storm will move through the northern half of the West Friday into Saturday with light valley rain and mountain snow. A strong winter storm will develop across the southern Plains tomorrow, with mixed precipitation, icing, and areas of heavy snow, mainly near and north of Austin and Dallas, Texas. The storm will move through the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Friday into Saturday, with heavy snow likely in the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians. Temperatures will remain well below normal in the Southeast behind the storm, with below normal temperatures likely to continue across much of the eastern US, as well along with drier conditions into mid-next week.