Gusty offshore winds and dry conditions prompted the National Weather Service on Saturday to issue a red flag warning for critical fire conditions this weekend in the Bay Area.
The warning will be in effect through Monday morning, across North Bay mountains, the East Bay hills and the Diablo Range.
Residents should prepare for high fire dangers through Monday resulting from low relative humidity and strong, gusty winds. Isolated gusts could reach around 70 mph in the North Bay mountains Sunday night into Monday morning, the weather service said.
The threat of fires also will be high in the East Bay hills, with wind gusts of up to 30 mph. Relative humidity levels in the North and East bays are expected to drop this afternoon to around 10 percent and recover overnight to only around 20 percent. A red flag warning is in effect for the North and East Bay mountains and hills.
"The greatest threat continues to be in the higher elevations of Napa County and Sonoma County, where the driest conditions and strongest winds are likely," the weather service said in an advisory. "Any fires that start will spread rapidly."
The greatest threat is at elevations above 1,000 feet in Napa County and eastern Sonoma County, where the driest conditions and strongest winds are most likely, according to the weather service.
Northeast winds are forecast to be from 20 to 35 with gusts up to 60 mph in some locations.
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Due to these conditions, PG&E said Saturday it may be "proactively turning power off for safety and conducting a Public Safety Power Shutoff in several northern California cities within the next 24 hours."
PG&E can take action from late Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Areas that can be affected are extreme fire risk areas like Lake County, Napa County, Sonoma County, Yuba County, Butte County, Sierra County, Place County, Nevada County, El Dorado County, Amador County, Plumas County and Calaveras.
"The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is PG&Eās top priority. We know how much our customers rely on electric service and would only consider temporarily turning off power in the interest of safety, and as a last resort during extreme weather conditions. PG&E has a plan. We want our customers to have plans, too." said Kevin Dasso, vice president of electric asset management.
