Strong winds will accompany a cooling temperature profile to create a very dangerous fire situation through Saturday. A Red Flag Warning is in effect for nearly all of northern Nevada and northeastern California, with winds in the afternoon expected to gust to as high as 40 mph in the foothills and wind prone valley locations. Humidity will likely stay below 15%. On a positive note, high temperatures could actually fall to below average to the low 90s over the weekend, before climbing back up to triple digits by the middle of next week.

Yesterday, I mentioned that while Reno set temperature records for the month of July, it wasn’t necessarily the warmest July ever. I’ll start by saying that this was a hot month…very hot by any metric. But when comparing temperatures over nearly 150 years, at the very least, the thermometer should remain in the same spot. But Reno’s has moved over a half a dozen times, finally landing at the airport in the 1940s (and it has moved to several different places at the airport itself since then). But perhaps even more significant, the environment at the airport thermometer has changed dramatically, moving from irrigated alfalfa fields 40 years ago to now being planted right in the middle of the airport tarmac. Such a change makes a huge difference, at times creating a 5-10 degree bump in the temperatures at the airport compared with the surrounding undeveloped areas.

So was this the hottest July or not? Unfortunately, there’s really no way to say for sure. I think it’s safe to say it was the hottest July since they moved the thermometer to it present location between the runways (about 15 years ago), but beyond that, it’s not as objective an answer as you’d like.