Weather service issues fire warning for this afternoon

Fire danger from thunderstorms with strong winds and isolated dry lightning is high this afternoon across western Nevada.

Isolated thunderstorms will form around midafternoon along the Nevada Sierra Front. While most of these thunderstorms will be wet, there will still be some lightning strikes outside the rainfall. Any of these dry strikes will have the potential to start new fires due to the recent hot and dry conditions.

In addition, the thunderstorms will have greater potential to produce strong outflow winds in excess of 50 mph which could push any new fire starts. The combination of these factors will produce critical fire weather conditions today.

The National Weather Service's red-flag warning is in effect from 2-9 p.m. today.

A red-flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions will occur.