Can wildfire risk worsen? Northern California eyes more winds, another PG&E outage

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The wildfire danger could get even worse this week — and PG&E will probably shut the lights off yet again.

While the ferocious windstorm that bludgeoned much of Northern California was expected to taper off Monday, forecasters believe another strong blast of winds is coming Tuesday — an event that’s expected to be at least as bad as Sunday.

That could intensify the Kincade Fire already burning a dangerous path through Sonoma County and the risk of new grass fires like those that crackled to life Sunday in Sacramento.

The National Weather Service warned of “critical fire weather concerns” Tuesday and Wednesday. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced it will likely implement another “public safety power shutoff” beginning around 8 a.m. Tuesday and lasting through Wednesday.

Although details weren’t yet available, Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s senior director of emergency preparedness, said the new blackout probably will carry “a little less impact” in terms of customers affected.

PG&E meteorologist Scott Strenfel said the winds might not be as fierce as Sunday but the grass, brush and other vegetation will be considerably drier.

“We’re in a period of time where you would call it as high a fire danger as you can get, that stretch of days we’re in now,” said Redding fire meteorologist Brent Wachter, who works for the predictive services division of the National Interagency Fire Center.

“It’s going to be just as bad as this current event,” he said. “It’s colder, denser air ... coming from the Arctic.”

Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services added: “Everything is critical fire weather. You’re going to see relative humidities coming down into the teens and single digits.”

The Weather Service’s “red flag” wildfire warning was set to expire late Monday morning.

That would set the stage for at least a few hours of relative calm — “a transition day,” Wachter called it.

PG&E’s Quinlan said the company was able to restore power in the northern Sacramento Valley and North Coast to tens of thousands of the 965,000 customers who’ve been blacked out as a precaution since late Saturday, and will continue doing so Monday. But he acknowledged that some customers may not get their power restored before the next blackout begins early Tuesday.

PG&E said parts of 32 counties could get blacked out again in the Sierra, Bay Area, North Coast and Kern County.

It would be the third deliberate blackout in a week called by PG&E.

The first one began last Wednesday, and that night the Kincade Fire erupted in Geyserville. PG&E later told regulators that a transmission passing through Geyserville, which was still running, appeared to have malfunctioned just about the time the fire started.

Wachter said the cold winds from the north “will spill into the upper Sacramento Valley Tuesday morning” and push southward the rest of the day.

Strenfel, the PG&E forecaster, said this could be the last deliberate blackout for the foreseeable future. “I do have a sliver of good news in that we’re not eyeing another beyond beyond that event Tuesday,” he said.

While acknowledging the public’s anger at PG&E over the power shutoffs, utility president Andy Vesey said late Sunday, “We will not roll the dice when it comes to public safety.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2019 at 5:30 AM.