It Was Not A Red Flag Warning From Elsie Hotpepper Which Woke Me Up In The Middle Of The Night

In the middle of the night, last night, as in around 3am, I was awakened from a sound sleep by my phone making one of its incoming message noises.

I figured this can't be good, what's happened that someone is messaging me in the middle of the night? Something about my mom and dad? My nephews? Miss Puerto Rico lock herself out of her apartment? Elsie Hotpepper run out of gas again?

I stumbled around in the dark and eventually located the phone, then woke it up to learn what woke me up was a Weather Alert from AccuWeather letting me know the National Weather Service had issued a RED FLAG WARNING for Fort Worth and surrounding areas.

Why did I need to know this in the middle of the night?

RED FLAG WARNING? In my groggy state of mind I did not remember what a RED FLAG WARNING is about.

This morning, when no longer groggy, I still could not remember what a RED FLAG WARNING is about.

So, I Googled and then read the Wikipedia RED FLAG WARNING article, well, actually, I only read the first paragraph, which I copy in its entirety below, for the education of those of you who live in an area of the planet which does not have RED FLAG WARNINGS in the middle of the night.....

A Red Flag Warning also known as a Fire Weather Warning is a forecast warning issued by the United States National Weather Service to inform area firefighting and land management agencies that conditions are ideal for wildland fire ignition, and rapid propagation. After drought conditions, and when humidity is very low, and especially when high or erratic winds which may include lightning are a factor, the Red Flag Warning becomes a critical statement for firefighting agencies. These agencies often alter their staffing and equipment resources dramatically to accommodate the forecast risk. To the public, a Red Flag Warning means high fire danger with increased probability of a quickly spreading vegetation fire in the area within 24 hours.

I shall take the RED FLAG WARNING under advisement, but not let it deter me from having myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels at Gateway Park, later today....