alt.hn

6/11/2026 at 5:16:12 AM

Show HN: I built a Red Flag Warning zone-check tool for the East Bay in 48h

by vedant28t

6/11/2026 at 10:43:39 PM

Cool. You may want to explain what a Red Flag Warning is and some general details about what that means if you are in a red flag warning zone or not.

I lived in the Bay Area for a while and didn't know. It would also be cool if for entering the address it did autocomplete with valid addresses.

by stephenbez

6/11/2026 at 11:25:15 PM

sure, so red flag warning is sort of high fire risk condition, not to evacuate but to get people ready just in case. generally they monitor things like winds, humidity, and something that they call dry fuel (actually a firefighter explained this to me as something fairly critical but no certain way to tell). when the conditions are sort of amenable to creating a fire, they flag the risk with a red flag warning

so if you are in the zone some prep helps, keeping phone charged, car keys handy ...

autocomplete sounds fun, i'll try

by vedant28t

6/11/2026 at 9:28:30 PM

I read up more - the 91 Oakland hill fire started small in one zone and pushed outside the initial zone into populated areas, so did the 23 lahaina, started inland burnt the whole town and it actually went crazy claiming over 100 lives. 25 palisades is more recent and rode the 100mph winds

feels silly that I did not realize that fires do not have zone boundaries, and warnings to adjacent areas are a deliberate choice. no one knows which way the wind blows. so glad it got called by the fire expert

by vedant28t