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    • California is in “critical fire weather” due to strong winds.
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    California is in “critical fire weather” due to strong winds.

    Kathleen William Posted on

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    SAN FRANCISCO – Residents of densely populated areas in California are urged to exercise caution near fire sources as several factors combine to dramatically increase the risk of fires on Monday – and even more so later in the week.

    More than 25 million of the state's 39 million residents will be sheltered this week due to warm temperatures, low humidity and strong winds that reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour at some elevations and are strong enough to trigger a hurricane There are alarm or fire warnings.

    “Gusty easterly winds and low relative humidity will support elevated to critical fire weather over coastal portions of California today through Thursday,” the National Weather Service said Monday.

    The offshore air currents, known as the Santa Ana winds in Southern California and the Diablo winds in the San Francisco Bay Area, have been blamed in the past for bringing down power lines and sparking wildfires, which then quickly spread of the dry vegetation.

    An alert for Los Angeles and Ventura counties effective Sunday night and throughout Monday read NWS Los Angeles office said wind gusts in the mountains – typically the hardest areas for firefighters to reach – could vary between 55 and 80 miles per hour.

    “Santa Ana winds will be stronger and more widespread Wednesday and Thursday,” the release said.

    San Francisco Chronicle meteorologist Anthony Edwards said this week's offshore winds — which bucked the usual pattern by blowing westward from the inland toward the ocean — represent the strongest such event in the state in several years.

    Edwards added that wind speeds could reach 70 miles per hour on the Bay Area's highest mountains, likely prompting preemptive power shutoffs by utility PG&E, and that they could be even higher in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

    The Bay Area Red Flag Warning runs from 11 a.m. Tuesday through early Thursday and includes a warning to “have an emergency plan in case a fire breaks out in your area.”

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    Kathleen William
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