Booming thunderstorm caps wild weather weekend in Sacramento, but heat wave continues
Well, that was something.
Lightning and booming thunder shook Sacramento overnight, waking people and dogs who were just trying to sleep off Sunday’s scorching heat.
The National Weather Service in a tweet shortly after 12:30 a.m. advised that showers and isolated thunderstorms were making their way toward Sacramento from the Bay Area, with radar showing the storm cells commuting north along Interstate 80.
By 1 a.m., local residents were tweeting out dramatic videos of the storm, many of them commenting that they’d never experienced anything like it in Sacramento. The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District posted video of a flag pole at one of its fire stations being struck.
It was as if Mother Nature was applauding herself after unleashing a particularly wicked weather weekend across Northern California.
Since late last week, residents have seen record-shattering heat, with temperatures above 110 degrees contributing to deliberate rolling power outages; intense thunderstorms, with lightning believed to have sparked at least one major wildfire in Tahoe National Forest; and, last but certainly not least, a fire tornado.
As for what’s next, the NWS Sacramento and Bay Area offices warn that isolated thunderstorms could continue through about noon Monday, which could cause gusts in Sacramento up to 20 mph as the city braces for more record-setting heat.
NWS forecasts show Sacramento reaching 109 degrees Monday, 112 on Tuesday and 105 on Wednesday, with an excessive heat warning remaining in place through at least Wednesday evening. Overnight relief will be minimal, as Monday night’s low will drop only to 78 degrees.
Thursday’s high of 100 degrees might feel cool by comparison, and temperatures near 102 or 103 are currently expected for Friday and the coming weekend.
Here’s a recap of the wild weather observed in Sacramento and across Northern California since last week.
Extreme heat forces, first rolling blackouts since 2001
Sacramento shattered daily heat records Saturday and Sunday; the former was downtown Sacramento’s hottest day in more than 14 years at 111 degrees, and the latter topped that by reaching 112 degrees both downtown and at Sacramento Executive Airport, according to the local NWS office. Previous daily records at those locations ranged from 105 to 108 degrees.
Saturday’s downtown reading of 111 broke an Aug. 15 record that had stood for exactly 100 years, and it was the city’s first time reaching getting that hot since July 2006, NWS Sacramento said in a tweet. The highest temperature ever recorded in California’s capital, if you’re curious, is 115 degrees.
Intense heat struck throughout Northern California, and the swelter was almost uniform across the Sacramento Valley. It was actually a degree or two hotter in Sacramento than in Redding, which is rare in heat waves, as the city on the north end of the valley usually trends a few degrees higher than the capital.
The unprecedented mid-August heat kept residents indoors and blasting air conditioning units, placing major strain on California’s electricity grid.
California Independent System Operator, which runs that grid, ended up declaring Stage 3 energy emergencies Friday and Saturday evenings, requiring utilities including PG&E to cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in one-hour stretches. After warning that a third straight night of blackouts might be necessary, ISO ultimately did not cut power Sunday.
Friday’s and Saturday’s the first rolling blackouts put in place by ISO in nearly two decades, since the 2001 energy crisis.
The blackouts did not affect Sacramento Municipal Utility District territory, which is not part of the ISO grid. SMUD in its own news release Sunday said it “expects to avoid power shortfalls.” SMUD asked residents to keep their thermostat above 80 degrees during the heatwave, and to limit household appliance use between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m.
ISO issued a Flex Alert for consumers statewide through Wednesday, asking users to conserve energy between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Wildfires spark amid lightning and intense heat
The Loyalton Fire sparked east of the town of Loyalton in Sierra County on Friday.
By Monday morning, the wildfire had exploded to more than 36,000 acres, charring parts of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra counties, and is just 5% contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
A number of mandatory evacuation orders have been issued along stretches of Highway 70 and Highway 395 near the Nevada state line.
Tahoe National Forest in an incident page lists the cause as under investigation, but officials have said they believe a lightning strike may have sparked the large blaze, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported, citing remarks from a Sunday afternoon incident briefing.
A number of other wildfires ignited over the weekend in Northern California and the Bay Area, according to Cal Fire and the Forest Service.
Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit is responding to the Canyon Zone Fire, a complex of four fires burning in Stanislaus County northwest of Patterson. Those fires were burning 3,000 acres with no containment as of Sunday evening, Cal Fire says. The unit is also responding to the Marsh Fire in Santa Clara County, a set of three fires burning 850 acres northeast of Milipitas that is also 0% contained.
The Jones Fire is burning 30 acres in Nevada County, northwest of Nevada City, according to Cal Fire’s Nevada-Yuba-Placer unit. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in the area near Jones Bar Road just west of Highway 49.
The Doe Fire is the largest of a cluster of wildfires sparked by lightning on Sunday in Mendocino National Forest, about 35 miles from Willows, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It’s burnt about 150 acres.
Weather service issues unprecedented fire tornado warning
A fiery tornado, or firenado, created by volatile activity on the Loyalton Fire prompted the NWS office in Reno to issue a tornado warning Saturday afternoon. That’s right — a fire tornado warning.
It’s believed to be the first time a tornado warning has been issued “outside of a thunderstorm environment,” the forecaster who wrote that warning said.
Winds approached 60 mph in the area, whipping up the tornado cloud and posing “an extremely dangerous situation for firefighters,” according to the warning.
By 3:30 p.m., the Reno NWS office said on social media that the fire cloud had weakened, the tornado warning was allowed to expire.
The rare weather phenomenon was previously seen during the deadly Carr Fire, which ravaged parts of Shasta County in 2018.
