POWER SHUTOFFS ANNOUNCED. HEAT, RISING WINDS, FIRE DANGER THIS WEEK

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The first significant power shutoff event of the fall will take place on Monday and Tuesday as PG&E cuts power to residents in mostly rural areas of 13 California counties. The Bay Area counties affected will be Sonoma, Napa, Alameda and Contra Costa.

The action comes as hot, dry weather descends on Northern California at the same time as weather forecasters predict two days of increased offshore winds. The National Weather Service has issued a three day heat advisory including the North Bay for temperatures from 95-105, peaking on Tuesday, but hot from Monday through Thursday.

Meanwhile, a low pressure trough diving into the northern Great Basin coupled with high pressure building into California and the Pacific Northwest will set us up for a period of weak to moderate offshore winds.

As this happens, the ridge of high pressure building in from our west, will cause temperatures to spike.

Highs Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday should range from 95-105 across most the inland areas of the North Bay. Here’s the forecast for Monday and Tuesday, but it will be hot through Thursday.

And relative humidity will be very low at times. This is the forecast for Monday afternoon.

This hot weather and low humidity will be accompanied by bursts of offshore winds. The first Monday and another on Tuesday.

By our fall standards these will not be severe wind events, but accompanied by heat and low humidity, the fire danger will rise significantly.

Here’s how the European Model sees winds at about the 2500 foot level early Monday morning. Most of the strong gusts are not expected to reach the valleys of the North Bay.

PG&E has announced limited power shutoffs in mostly rural areas of 13 counties. The majority of the shutoffs will be on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. In the North Bay the areas impacted include a few eastern and hilly areas of Sonoma and Napa counties.

If you live in one of these areas, go to this PG&E page and type in your address to see if you’ll be affected. https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/outage-tools/outage-map/

By Wednesday and Thursday temperatures will moderate a bit, but remain hot, in the 90s. The 80s will not return until Friday so it will be a hot week.

So, the big takeaway is that the ingredients will be in place for dangerous fire starts all across Northern California throughout the week. That means avoid all activities that can cause a spark, and stay hydrated if you’ll be outside during the afternoon.

At this point dry weather looks to continue through the next 10 days. More updates ahead as conditions warrant. Stay tuned!