Critical Fire Weather Warning Issued For East Bay

The National Weather Service issued a "critical fire weather" warning for East Bay that starts Wednesday night.

"Critical Fire Weather Conditions are expected to develop across the area over the next several days," the agency said in a statement. The warning applies also to the North Bay hills.

"Strong and gusty northerly winds will combine with falling relative humidity in an offshore flow to produce critical fire weather conditions," the Weather Service said.

"Despite the rainfall of the past weekend," the agency said, "there have been several days of sunny and dry weather which have contributed to drying out the fuels available to burn."

In a related warning, the Weather Service declared a "hazardous weather watch" above 1,000 feet from 11 p.m. Wednesday through 3 p.m. Friday.