The Bay Area could see the most dangerous fire conditions of the year this weekend and into early next week.
“Right now, for us, all eyes are focused on what is actually headed our way Sunday into early next week. We are getting indication from the National Weather Service that we are setting up for a potentially very strong wind event, similar in conditions to what we experienced in October 2017 and during the Kincaid Fire of 2019,” said Paul Lowenthal, assistant fire marshal for Santa Rosa.
The National Weather Service has called Red Flag Warnings for the entire Bay Area, which go into effect Sunday.
The first, for the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills, goes into effect Sunday morning and has been extended through 5 p.m. Tuesday. It was originally set to expire Tuesday morning.
The second, for the coastal regions, including the Santa Cruz Mountains and lower valleys, begins at 8 p.m. Sunday and expires 11 a.m. Monday.
Winds are once again expected to range from 25-40 mph with gusts of up to 70 mph at the highest elevations.
Fire crews are making sure that personnel and equipment are in place in the areas of highest risk, in case a fire does erupt. This is the latest in a series of fire watches and warnings, which have seemed almost continuous since wildfires broke out in August.
“We do definitely need rain and we don’t just need one storm; we need, you know, back-to-back wetting rain events to occur,” said Lowenthal.
Meanwhile, PG&E said it will implement a Public Safety Power Shutoff impacting 361,000 customers Sunday.
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