On Saturday, even as a record-breaking heat wave hit California, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced plans to potentially cut power on Tuesday and Wednesday — the first outage of its kind for this fire season.
With temperatures expected to peak at over 110 degrees Fahrenheit — about 20 to 25 degrees above normal — over the holiday weekend, vegetation dryness is already at critical levels across the region, increasing the chances that a blaze could spread quickly, if ignited. Combined with hot, dry winds, this could spell trouble.
The National Weather Service has forecasted a potential offshore wind event — essentially, strong winds — beginning late Monday evening and lasting through Wednesday morning, impacting the interior of northern California, the North Bay Mountains and southern California, in particular.
Though the Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch, it is likely to be upgraded to a Red Flag Warning in the coming days, according to PG&E. The shift usually happens about 24 hours in advance, unless meteorological conditions change.
"The odds are that we will see Red Flag Warnings pop up soon with this heat. And unfortunately, it might be some time before we lose this fire weather criteria," said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
A half-dozen PG&E zones — which encompass 45 counties — could be impacted if power is cut.
The utility, which has faced heightened public pressure for the role its equipment has played in causing massive wildfires in recent years, has used what it calls the ‘Public Safety Power Shutoff Program’ since 2018 to lessen the chances of igniting a wildfire.
The looming power outages are different than the utility’s recent rolling electrical black-outs, which were caused by an overtaxed electrical grid — when demand, especially for air conditioning amid scorching heat, overtakes the supply of electricity from power plants. (A Flex Alert is in place across California for afternoons and evenings through Monday, as another heat wave prompts officials to ask for energy conservation.)
Because the latter half of fire season is categorized by strong winds — which heightens the chance of a piece of electrical equipment having a problem and sparking a blaze — PG&E shuts the power off in certain places with high fire risk as a prevention tool.
Unlike the lightning-caused wildfires that burned more than a million acres of California this August, many of the state’s deadliest and most destructive wildfires were caused by PG&E’s equipment. They include the 2019 Kincade Fire, the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, and wildfires that roared through northern California’s Wine Country in 2017.
A ‘PSPS Watch’ is typically issued within 72 hours of a weather event — the precursor to a ‘PSPS Warning,’ which means that a shutoff is almost certainly happening.
Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @lizziejohnsonnn
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September 06, 2020 at 05:30AM
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PG&E could shut off power Tuesday and Wednesday in parts of Bay Area as fire threat looms - San Francisco Chronicle
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