The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning of wildfire danger for most of the Bay Area, including the entire city of Richmond, citing strong winds and “critically dry” conditions.
The warning goes into effect at 11 p.m. Thursday and expires at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Pacific Gas and Electric is considering issuing a planned power shut-off for the Bay Area and on Tuesday opened an emergency operations center in Vacaville ahead of a “potential” “Public Safety Power Shutoff” — a term it uses to refer to planned power outages meant to decrease fire risk. Tamar Sarkissian, a spokesperson for PG&E’s Bay Region, said she could not provide further details. The agency’s seven day shut-off forecast listed the likelihood of shut-offs as “elevated” for 12 Bay Area counties, including Contra Costa County, on Thursday, with additional counties added to the list Friday and Saturday. While other counties statewide could lose power Sunday, Contra Costa County was not among them.
Earlier this month, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (Contra Costa Fire) and PG&E announced that they’ve formed a partnership to staff a seasonal aerial firefighting helicopter that will serve Contra Costa County, saying in a press release that the air support will “increase the Fire District’s ability to quickly contain and suppress vegetation fires across the county.”
Previous warnings, like the one the weather service issued in July, have mostly been limited to the hills. This week’s marks the first time this fire season that the NWS has issued a warning for such a large portion of the Bay Area, Gass said.
“We have increasing confidence that offshore flow is going to develop across the region largely in the higher elevation, but they can’t be ruled out to mix down … to the valley,” said NWS meteorologist Roger Gass.
When deciding whether to issue a red flag warning, the agency monitors fuel levels, wind speeds and humidity. Those criteria have all been met: Fuel levels are high, especially after the extensive early October heatwave, and Diablo winds — the offshore winds that blow hot air from inland toward the Bay Area coast and played a key role in spreading the 2017 Tubbs Fire — are expected.
In the tallest Bay Area peaks, winds will likely be in the 25 to 35 range, gusting up to 65 mph, according to the warning. The weather service predicts gusts reaching 41 mph in Richmond Thursday evening.
Though a “slight chance” of drizzle is forecast for Wednesday morning, humidity levels are low region-wide. And the Bay Area has gone several months without “widespread wetting rainfall” — defined by the agency as rain that exceeds one-tenth of an inch, Gass said.
The agency’s forecasts are predicting highs in the 70s this week. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be hot for there to be fire danger, Gass said.
A spokesperson for the East Bay Regional Park District said no park closures have been announced yet. (Check the district’s park closures website before you go, as the district routinely closes hiking trails when fire risks are high.)
On red flag days, fire experts share this advice:
- Keep your phone on, charged and in your pocket throughout the day.
- Fill up your tank with gas and pack your trunk with a go bag of essentials and extra water. Keep in mind that garage doors operating on electricity may not open, but avoid parking on the street, to leave room for emergency vehicles to pass.
- Avoid activities that could cause a spark, such as parking or driving over dry vegetation, which has been a common cause of fires this year, said Nicole Sarment, a NWS meteorologist. Make sure you properly extinguish cigarettes and barbecues properly and follow local burn bans and firework prohibitions.
- Avoid running your lawnmower, said Gass.
- Be prepared to rapidly evacuate if needed. Have an evacuation route in mind.
Berkeleyside reporter Iris Kwok contributed to this story.
