Red flag warning issued for Houston: What you need to know to protect your home

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A fire weather warning, or red flag warning, in the city of Houston has been extended through 7 p.m. on Friday.

This means the dry and windy conditions could make it easy for wildfires to spread easily and quickly.

ABC13 Chief Meteorologist Travis Herzog said about 90% of wildfires in Texas are caused by people and there are steps you can take to protect your home and community.

According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, dry and windy conditions are causing a gradual increase in wildfire activity across Texas and it will be adding more resources in areas of concern in West and South Texas to effectively respond to any new wildfires that may spark due to these conditions.

"It's a variety of factors," said Matthew Ford, a wildland-urban interface specialist I for Texas A&M Forest Service. "We do have dry winds. We do have the drying of the vegetation. We are also having conditions that are historically typical with the La Niña conditions, which brings a lot of that dry moisture and we're seeing not only the temperatures a little bit above normal but also that relative humidity has been dropping down and decreasing, so the conditions that we've seen in previous years are just reoccurring."

There are ways people can help reduce the risk of wildfires including pruning the trees and low hanging branches, creating 30 feet of defensible space around your home by watering regularly and spacing out your plants and stay weather aware

"When it comes to what happens for the rest of this year, the spring is really critical," Herzog said. "If we miss the spring rains like we did in 2011, which is one of the most extreme droughts we had, that leads to extreme summer heat. There's this feedback cycle that it's so hot so dry, it keeps drying things even more so all it takes is the fire to start and the wind to get going and you can see rapid-fire growth."

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