PG&E warns of potential energy outages in Northern California

Fierce Diablo winds are expected to hit Northern California this week, creating an increased risk of fire in the burn-torn region and prompting Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to prepare for potential blackouts in parts of 43 counties, warned utilities.

In part of the Sierra Nevada, which extends to the south of the Santa Cruz Mountains, power outages could occur from Wednesday, according to PG&E.

Two dangerous wind events are expected this week – the first one begins on Wednesday afternoon or evening and extends through Thursday morning and the second develops on Thursday evening and runs through Friday morning, forecasters said.

On Monday morning, the National Weather Service released a fire weather watch for late Tuesday through Friday morning, predicting that the strongest gusts of the first wind event would occur overnight from Wednesday through Thursday. The greatest threat is in the mountains of northeastern counties Napa and Sonoma, where the destructive glass fire is still raging, according to the weather service.

“Any fires that start are likely to spread quickly due to a combination of dry fuel, windy northerly winds, and low humidity,” the forecasters said.

In anticipation of the winds, PG&E announced that the power supply could be cut from Wednesday to Friday for parts of the following counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Alpine, Amador, Calaveras El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, and Yuba.

Parts of 24 other counties – Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Trinity, Yolo, Fresno, Inyo , Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Tulare and Tuolumne – could experience shutdowns for a shorter period of time, utility officials said.

The shutdowns are unlikely to affect entire counties, PG&E said, noting widespread outages in the Bay Area are unlikely.

The agency says the areas most likely to shutdown are the foothills of the northern sierra; the middle and higher peaks of the Sierra, generally north of Yosemite; the northern Bay Area Mountains near Mt. St. Helena; small bags in the East Bay Area near Mt. Diablo; the Oakland Hills east of Piedmont; the elevated terrain east of Milpitas around the Calaveras Reservoir; and parts of the Santa Cruz and Big Sur mountains.

The utility has agreed to pay $ 25.5 billion to settle claims for damages in a previous series of fatal fires stemming from its equipment and for the involuntary manslaughter in Northern California in 2018, the deadliest corporate crime in US history, known to be guilty of 84 involuntary manslaughter.

The company has vowed to revamp its operations and focus more on security to avoid starting another catastrophic fire. But it is now being examined for its possible involvement in the deadly Zogg Fire. California investigators consider the company’s equipment to be a possible cause of the fire that killed four people and burned more than 56,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection included some of the utility’s equipment in its investigation, PG&E said in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility filed a preliminary report of the incident with state regulators, stating in a statement that it was working with investigators. Cal Fire has not yet determined the cause of the fire.

Temperatures across the state are expected to rise throughout the week, with parts of the Central Valley nearing record highs, according to the National Weather Service. Dry winds are expected to sweep the Sacramento Valley at speeds of up to 30 mph as of Monday.

“A warming and drying trend will happen this week as high pressure builds up across the state,” PG&E officials said in a statement in which gusts in the mountains of the North Bay Area and Northern Sierra are at or over 50 miles / h were estimated.

Northern California was burned by historic forest fires that year, with 4 million acres burned. The August Complex, the largest fire in the state’s history, is still burning in the Mendocino National Forest on Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.

Parts of the region are already exposed to an increased fire risk with above-average temperatures and windy conditions. Air quality warnings remain in effect throughout the San Joaquin Valley and central California due to forest fires, according to the National Weather Service Forecasting Center in Hanford.

National Weather Service meteorologist David King said the winds built up in the northeast and blew offshore, leaving warm temperatures and dried fuel. The winds are expected to be strongest at high elevations in the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills, and Santa Cruz Mountains, King said.

“We’ll still see winds making it into the valleys, but it won’t be very strong or excessive,” he said. “If you have strong winds, you are very concerned about the tall fire. That will really stay in the higher elevations now. “

Temperatures in the Los Angeles area are expected to hit sultry highs again this week, with areas in the San Fernando Valley approaching 100 degrees. The beaches will float in the 80s, said weather service meteorologist Mike Wofford. A heat warning for a large part of the region is expected to come into force on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and, according to the weather service, will continue until Friday 5 p.m.

“It’ll just be hot and dry, not our usual morning low clouds and fog,” said Wofford.