RED FLAG WARNINGS BEGIN THURSDAY. WIND EVENT COMING. LIKELY PG&E POWER SHUTOFFS.

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SUMMARY

A low pressure center will pass just to the east of California from Thursday into Saturday. This will bring a classic “inside slider” wind event to Northern California. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of Northern California, including the North Bay counties for offshore winds.

WINDS PICK UP THURSDAY

The low pressure center that might have brought rain to the North Bay has taken an easterly track, now forecast to just brush eastern California as it slides south from Thursday to Saturday.

Our winds will pick up on Thursday. There will be two likely bursts of wind, late Thursday into Friday morning and late Friday into Saturday morning.

You can see the forecast winds at the 925mb level, about 2500 feet, late Thursday night.

Winds at the surface may gust from 25-35 mph, and at the peaks up to 65 mph. So a sizable wind event. On Thursday they will be mainly from the north, and shift to the northeast by Friday. Despite the showers we received a few days ago, this will quickly dry out fuels, thus the Red Flag Warning beginning on Thursday.

LIKELY PG&E POWER SHUTOFFS

PG&E has already announced they will likely be shutting off power to selected customers in a large number of counties across Northern California beginning on Thursday. They have listed possible shutoffs in a limited number of counties on Thursday, with expanded shutoffs possible on Friday and Saturday as more areas of the state are affected.

For the latest details on PG&E power shutoffs and to determine whether you may be impacted, go to this link: https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/psps-updates/

The fire danger will ease by late on Saturday. There is a chance of some rain around the 23rd of the month, but it’s still uncertain. The GFS model brings us rain, but the European models keeps the cutoff low pressure center well off the coast.

We’ll have more updates as conditions warrant.