A second Red Flag Warning was issued this week. The warning is in effect from 10 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21 to Friday, Oct. 23 at 8 a.m. and comes on the heels of a warning that was issued earlier this week for Monday evening through Wednesday at 8 a.m. The Red Flag Warning is issued for North Bay mountains, East Bay hills and interior valleys, Santa Cruz mountains and the San Mateo County coast.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), north northeast wind in mountains and ridges is expected to be 10-25 miles per hour, with gusts up to 40 miles per hour; in the valleys, north northeast winds will reach 10-20 miles per hour with gusts up to 35 miles per hour; and the San Mateo County coast is predicted to have north northeast winds of 10-20 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 miles per hour.
Gusty winds combined with low humidity will result in weather that presents a high fire risk. The areas that present the highest threat are the mountains of Napa County and northeastern Sonoma County.
Humidity during the weather event is anticipated to be 12-20% during the day with poor overnight recovery in the 20-30% range.
Due to the wind warnings, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has issued a warning for a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) from Wednesday evening through Friday morning. The PSPS could impact 54,000 PG&E customers in 19 different counties. In Sonoma County, PG&E is predicting that 960 customers will be impacted. PG&E’s predicted outage map shows the forecasted outages as occurring mostly in the hills between Sonoma and Napa counties.
To view the map, click here.
