60 mph wind gusts prompt red flag warnings in California

A wind advisory is scheduled to go into effect across the Bay Area at 11 p.m. on Sunday as forecasters watch for gusts up to 60 mph in higher elevations spanning from the East Bay hills to the North Bay mountains, sparking fire weather concerns while temperatures heat up. 

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Rick Canepa, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office, said most people likely won’t see wind speeds higher than 15 to 30 mph. “But it’s going to blow around unsecured objects and may cause a few power outages,” he said Sunday morning. (PG&E declared its first major Public Safety Power Shutoffs of the fire season on Sunday, with conditions prompting the closure of Rockville Hills Regional Park in Fairfield.) “It can also cause some driving difficulties and dry out some of the finer fuels.”

The culprit is a low-pressure system forming in the Great Basin, which is leaving an area of high pressure in its wake that’s expected to build Sunday night into Monday morning over Northern California. “What we see as a result of this are down-sloping winds, which force air to slope downward from the mountains,” Canepa explained. “That tends to compress warm air and dry it out, so high temperatures will steadily climb this week with each passing day.”

Daytime highs are expected to reach 10 to 15 degrees above seasonal averages, soaring toward the 80s on Monday and into the lower 90s on Tuesday. The heat is also making its way inland toward the Sacramento office’s coverage area, which has red flag warnings in effect from Redding to Fairfield and down to Merced through 8 p.m. Monday due to a mix of gusty winds and low humidity. The weather service encouraged people to exercise fire safety precautions because of the “increased potential for rapid spread” in those areas. 

However, Canepa said that so far, the Bay Area seems to be faring better. “We’re just coming out of the rainy season,” he said, and humidity levels are stable. Temperatures also won’t reach their peak until after the winds have departed the region; the advisory is expected to end at 11 a.m. on Monday. 

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By the weekend, temperatures are expected to cool down into the 70s. 

Check with the weather service for the latest updates on the forecast.