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Lightning brings risk of new wildfires to California

Western Wildfires
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Fast-moving thunderstorms with lightning and little rain are moving across Northern California and raising the risk of new wildfires in the drought-stricken region.

A red flag warning for critical fire weather conditions is expected to remain in effect all of Friday. But the thunderstorm threat is expected to diminish in most areas by late morning.

Thunderstorms also moved through parts of Southern California late Thursday and early Friday, triggering flash flood concerns for burn scars of past wildfires.

The threat of lightning-sparked fires arrived as thousands of firefighters have made progress on containing more than a dozen large fires. Most of them are in Northern California.