High wildfire risk, PG&E power shutoff possible as Northern California winds kick up
Weather forecasters are warning with increased urgency that gusty winds this weekend will introduce high wildfire danger across large parts of Northern California.
Red flag warnings issued as of midday Friday, in place from Saturday evening through noon Monday, now encompass the majority of the north half of the state.
The National Weather Service’s Bay Area office early Friday morning issued a red flag warning due to critical fire weather conditions. Gusts between 40 to 50 mph, blowing from the east, are expected in those parts of the Bay Area overnight Saturday into Sunday. Winds might calm slightly during the day Sunday before another “burst of winds” that night, the warning reads.
Later Friday morning, the NWS upgraded a lower-risk fire weather watch to a red flag warning, combining it with the above areas to include wide expanses of interior Northern California: the western and northern portions of the Sacramento Valley, along with most of the Sierra Nevada foothills. The warning is in place 9 p.m. Saturday to noon Monday.
Gusts could approach 40 mph across most of the regions included in the red flag warning, and a few areas within those regions could see gusts reach up to 55 mph.
Wind gusts at those speeds have the potential to boost the spread of existing wildfires as well as any new ones that may ignite.
Faced with those conditions, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Thursday evening that about 21,000 of its customers across parts of Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties might lose electricity this weekend in a potential public safety power shutoff that could begin as early as Saturday evening. On Friday afternoon, PG&E expanded possible shutoffs to the Bay Area on Sunday and Monday. The utility did not say what counties would be affected or how many homes could be interrupted.
PG&E earlier this month cut power to about 172,000 customers in advance of the extreme wind conditions that flared up the southwest corner of the North Complex — a wildfire that exploded in Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties as the wind drove the fire to jump the middle fork of the Feather River, ravaging communities north and east of Lake Oroville and killing at least 15 people, according to Cal Fire and Butte County officials.
PG&E also said Thursday that the utility found over 80 instances of damage or hazards to its power lines the utility had de-energized during that intentional shutoff, which lasted Sept. 7 to Sept. 10.
Four massive fire complexes are burning in areas included in the red flag warnings.
They include the August Complex, which has already scorched a record-smashing 863,000 acres in and near Mendocino National Forest in portions of Tehama, Humboldt, Trinity, Glenn and Lake counties; and the North Complex, which, at more than 304,000 acres, is the fifth-largest wildfire in California’s recorded history.
The SCU Lightning Complex in the South Bay and LNU Lightning Complex in the North Bay, which have each burned between 350,000 and 400,000 acres to become the No. 3 and No. 4 biggest fires recorded in state history, are also burning primarily in red flag warning zones. Cal Fire says, though, that both of those wildfires are 98% contained, and have not shown significant fire behavior for more than a week. The August Complex and North Complex are 38% and 78% contained, respectively.
Hot weather this weekend
It won’t just be dry and windy.
The latest NWS forecasts predict Northern California will be well warmer than average beginning this weekend and extending into next week.
Highs in Sacramento could range about 10 to 15 degrees hotter than average for late September. Saturday’s expected high of 88 will be closer to seasonally normal, before Sunday hits 96 and Monday reaches about 98 degrees, forecasts predict. Forecasters expect highs to stay in the mid-90s through at least Thursday.
Temperatures will be similar throughout the valley, a few degrees warmer farther north near Redding and Red Bluff. The foothills are expected to reach the low- to mid-80s Sunday. South Lake Tahoe could reach 82 degrees Monday.
Climate change and California wildfires
Wildfires have always been part of life in California. The past four years have brought some of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the state’s modern history.
Nearly 180 people have lost their lives since 2017. More than 41,000 structures have been destroyed and nearly 7 million acres have burned – that’s roughly the size of Massachusetts.
So far this year, 26 people have died, according to Cal Fire.
Meanwhile, this year’s August was the hottest on record in California. A rare series of lightning storms sparked a series of fires, including the August Complex that has burned roughly 840,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history.
Our climate is becoming more severe.
The 2017 wildfire season occurred during the second hottest year on record in California and included a devastating string of fires in October that killed 44 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 buildings in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte and Solano counties.
The following year was the most destructive and deadliest for wildfires in the state’s history. It included the Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, and the enormous Mendocino Complex.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 7:35 AM with the headline "High wildfire risk, PG&E power shutoff possible as Northern California winds kick up."
