The Red Flag warning currently in effect for the Santa Clarita Valley has been extended through 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 10.
“As of earlier this morning we were predicting it would last until 8 p.m. tonight,” said meteorologist Kathy Hoxie of the National Weather Service. “However, we have extended the Red Flag warning until 8 p.m. tomorrow.”
All of the National Weather Service’s sensors in the Santa Clarita Valley read temperatures in the low 70’s on Sunday; but in terms of fire danger, Hoxie said, it is not temperature that is critical – it’s humidity.
The Saugus weather station, located near the softball fields at Central Park, recorded a relative humidity value that fluctuated between 4 and 7 percent over the course of the day on Sunday.
The extreme fire danger posed by single-digit humidity is only exacerbated by the Santa Ana winds, she added.
“We are forecasting for today winds between 20-30 mph and gusts of 45 mph,” said Hoxie.
The winds, she said, are expected to diminish on Monday – the likes of which will allow officials at the National Weather Service to lift the Red Flag warning which has dried out Southern California over much of the past week.
