UPDATE: The Red Flag warning has been extended through Wednesday night
Oceanside CA – A red flag warning is in effect until Tuesday night for most of San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties plus all of Orange County. Hot temperatures and dry winds with gusts up to 30 mph are in the forecast along the coast.
The wind and hot, dry temperatures caused a small brush fire to quickly grow to an acre before it was extinguished by Oceanside and Camp Pendleton firefighters, near the airport, just after noon on Sunday.
The high winds up-rooted a tree on Los Arbolitos Boulevard, late Sunday afternoon blocking a portion of the road near Fireside Street. and slightly damaging a Toyota Four Runner parked on the street.
“Surprisingly, it’s the only one that’s blown over.” said Matt Farnum, with the Oceanside Public Works Department, as he raked saw dust and tree splinters from the street. It took Farnum about forty-five minutes to cut the tree, a Podcarpus G. (according to Matt), into pieces and remove it from the road. Matt said he received the call about the fallen tree at 5:40 and he had it cleaned up by 7:00 pm.
Wind speeds were averaging 24 mph with gusts of up to 37 mph around the time of the incident according to wind graphs on windfinder.com.
Red Flag Warning and High Winds to Continue-update
May 12, 2014