Fire Weather Watch for North Bay Hills, PG&E Elevates Shutoff Potential

The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch for the North Bay hills…from late on Monday to early morning Wednesday.  Hot temperatures and increased winds are expected during that time frame.

Here’s a close up of the North Bay hills that are affected.

So far, PG&E has issued a slightly elevated the risk of a power safety shutoff in parts of Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties roughly corresponding to the fire watch map above.  However, this does not mean that any shutoffs will be forthcoming.

The reason for concern is an expected offshore wind event that will also bring hotter, drier weather from late Monday through early Wednesday, as an “inside slider” low pressure system passes to our east.

You can see the forecast of a change in winds as the low passes to our east late Monday and Tuesday.

For now, this doesn’t look like an extreme event, with winds expected to reach their peak overnight Monday at about 40 miles per hour in some of the hills.  Still, with temperatures rising on Tuesday and lower humidities, the risk of any fire starts spreading is definitely there.

Thankfully, the wind and heat event will be short lived. By Wednesday, winds begin to turn onshore once again and temperatures will cool down.  In fact, by late in the week a deep trough of low pressure will bring temperatures in the 60s and the chance for rain to the Bay Area.  Lots going on this coming week!