UPDATED: Officials warn Monterey County residents to be prepared ahead of Sunday night's extreme weather.

At around 11am Sunday, the thunderstorms expected to bring dry lightning and wind gusts of up to 65 mph to Monterey County were reported just off the coast of Morro Bay, headed north. Within two hours, officials from the cities of the Monterey Peninsula and Monterey County sent out the word to residents : Be prepared.

The remnant of Tropical Storm Genivieve could bring lightning strikes to the region during the red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service, which lasts through 5pm Monday for the region. 

At 2:13pm, Sunday, the weather service reported that lightning and winds could hit the Monterey area later in the afternoon, before moving on to the San Francisco Bay Area this evening.

"Scattered thunderstorms are expected Sunday night through Monday morning as elevated moisture from Baja California moves northward. The main threat will be lightning and gusty, erratic winds as the storms develop," according to the report.

Fire crews battling the River, Carmel and Dolan fires have been preparing for the weather's arrival and adjusting their strategies to combat the possibility of more fire starts due to lightning.

On the coast, fire and police departments in Monterey, Carmel, Pacific Grove, Seaside and Marina are fully staffed and have coordinated plans to manage the situation, according to a press release issued at around 1pm, Sunday.

In addition, Community Emergency Response Team volunteers are deployed or are available in Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel, the announcement states.

Officials are encouraging residents to follow the situation closely themselves and prepare emergency supplies, including "go bags" packed with essentials like a change of clothing, electronics and important papers, if they have to leave the area quickly.

Texting your zip code to 888777 will register you to receive text message alerts, or you can register at alertmontereycounty.org. Current fire information is available by calling 211. The county also has information available on its webpage about the 2020 fires: co.monterey.ca.us/2020Fires.

Any fires or emergencies should be reported by call ing 911.

For those on Twitter, follow: Monterey County Office of Emergency Services, @MontereyCounteyOES; National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area,  @NWSBayArea; city of Monterey, @CityofMonterey.

In the event residents must evacuate, the closest evacuation shelter for many on the Peninsula is at the Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, in downtown Monterey, which was equipped with cots and blankets in the early hours of Saturday to serve as a shelter for fire evacuees, who number more than 20,000; another 40,000 people are currently under evacuation advisories. Other evacuation shelters are located at: Carmel Middle School, 4380 Carmel Valley Road; Sherwood Hall, 940 North Main St., Salinas; Salinas Valley Fairgrounds, 625 Division St., King City.

The SPCA urges people to take their pets with them. The shelter itself is under an evacuation warning and has evacuated all of the animals in their care but people who need help can call 831-373-2631 during the day or 831-264-5455 at night.

For good advice on how to prepare for an evacuation, see this post written by someone who's had to do it before.