Red Flag Warning in place for areas west and east of Lake Tahoe

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a Red Flag Warning for Wednesday, August 28 from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for Carson City and the portion of Douglas County in the valley. Also under the warning are other portions of Western Nevada, the Eastern Sierra and the west slope of the Sierra.

The Lake Tahoe Basin does not fall into this warning.

The Red Flag Warning is for thunderstorms and strong outflow winds. The Fire Weather Watch is no longer in effect.

Expect:

* Thunderstorms...Isolated to scattered thunderstorms Wednesday afternoon and evening, focused near and east of Highway 395. The peak time will be between 2 and 6 PM.

* Outflow Winds...Gusts to 50 mph with thunderstorms.

* Impacts...Lightning can create new fire starts and may combine with strong outflow winds to cause a fire to rapidly grow in size and intensity before first responders can contain them.

In South Lake Tahoe there will be isolated showers before 11:00 a.m., then isolated showers and thunderstorms between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Otherwise it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 85. West wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20 percent. On Wednesday night, expect mostly clear skies, with a low around 46. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Afternoon temperatures will remain above average through the weekend, with above-average low temperatures returning closer to average by late week. Dry conditions return Thursday.