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Weather service warns of prime fire conditions tonight Thursday Aug 18, 2016 at 2:41 PM Aug 18, 2016 at 2:41 PM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman Triple-digit heat, stiff winds and plunging nighttime humidity has firefighters and meteorologists bracing for increased potential wildfire activity at high elevations around Southern Oregon. The National Weather Service has issued a red-flag warning for high-elevation areas of the South Cascades and Siskiyous tonight through 9 a.m. Friday as east winds of up to 30 mph and humidity at or below 25 percent are expected, particularly around mountain ridges. Those factors, along with nighttime lows falling just to the high 60s and low 70s in the mountains, create prime fire-ignition and burning conditions, says Brian Ballou, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry in Central Point. "We're headed into crunch time right now," Ballou says. "Mid-August temperatures in the 100s, hot winds, low humidity. About the only thing we're not expecting right now is lightning." Weather service meteorologist Mike Petrucelli says the red-flag warning, which was issued this afternoon and set to begin at 8 p.m., is a caution to firefighting agencies that these conditions likely will contribute to significant spread of existing fires and create opportunities for new human-caused fires to erupt. The warning comes because of the forecast of east winds of 10 mph to 20 mph with gusts of up to 30 mph and relative humidity levels at or below 25 percent, Petrucelli says. Those are thresholds that led to the red-flag warning, he says. As of early this afternoon, state forestry crews were not actively battling any wildfires but 10-person crews were on standby in Central Point and Grants Pass amid extreme fire-danger status, Ballou says. "We're getting peppered with something almost every day," Ballou says. "The fires are starting easier and moving faster. "We feel sort of lucky that we haven't had something terribly out of hand," he says. The district's largest fire came last Friday afternoon in Selma, where an out-of-control and illegal transient camp fire quickly spread to 50 acres and burned three homes as well as at least five outbuildings, according to ODF. "That's the kind of fire we can get every day at this time of year," Ballou says. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.