Wind dies down but Red Flag danger remains
A wildfire weather warning remains in place until 5 p.m. Tuesday.
(A Vacaville Fire Department vehicle is seen in an undated photograph. Image courtesy Vacaville Fire Department via Facebook.)
After several days of blustery, gusty wind, forecasters say much of Northern California, including Solano County, are in for a break.
In a forecast discussion posted by the National Weather Service early Tuesday morning, meteorologists with the weather agency said breezy wind and low humidity are expected to continue through the day on Tuesday, which will keep elevated fire dangers in place.
A Red Flag Warning issued over the weekend remains active for Tuesday, according to the weather agency’s Sacramento office. All of Solano County is covered by the warning until 5 p.m., the agency said. An associated wind advisory lasts until 2 p.m.
Despite these warnings, forecasters say gusts are expected to be slightly less than what was experienced earlier in the week. In other words, it won’t be as windy Tuesday like it was on Sunday and Monday.
Though the wind is easing up, dry conditions could still cause the rapid start and spread of any fires that ignite in the region. Forecasters are urging people to remain vigilant and take extra precautions to help prevent new fires.
Later this week, weather officials say the wind should die down, but dry conditions and seasonably warm temperatures will remain in place. Still, the fire danger is expected to be reduced from the middle of the week to the weekend, giving Northern California a taste of the summer weather it missed in recent months.
For the latest forecasts, watches and warnings, visit the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office website by clicking or tapping here.
In addition to the easing weather conditions, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company has started restoring electrical service to hundreds of rural Solano County residents after turning off power to those customers on Sunday afternoon.
The measure, known as a public safety power shutoff, was enacted to prevent PG&E’s equipment in certain areas from starting new wildfires, the utility said. PG&E has pre-emptively shut off power since its aging equipment was blamed in recent years for several destructive and deadly wildfires in Northern California, some of which started during severe weather events.
More than 300,000 PG&E customers throughout Northern California were impacted by the latest PSPS event, the utility said on Sunday. In Solano County, around 1,600 customers in rural parts of Fairfield, Vacaville and Winters were affected by the planned outage, including homes and businesses within the burn scar of August’s LNU Lightning Complex wildfire.
As of early Tuesday morning, electrical power was restored to all customers in rural Vacaville and some customers in rural Fairfield, according to information published on PG&E’s website. Electrical power was still off for less than 400 customers of rural Fairfield and Suisun City directly east of the Napa County line.
In Fairfield, hundreds of customers lost electrical service Sunday evening due to power equipment failure caused by gusty wind there. A fire that ignited at a trailer park along Circle Drive is being investigated by officials as possibly being linked to some of that failed PG&E equipment, according to sources.
At its peak, around 1,700 customers in Fairfield were without electrical service. As of early Tuesday morning, power had been restored to all but 300 of these customers. PG&E was not able to provide an estimated day and time for when electrical service would be restored to these homes and businesses.
Another 130 customers remain without electrical service along the Montezuma Slough south of Rio Vista, according to PG&E’s outage webpage. The utility said it’s still assessing what happened and had a crew en route to restore service there.
In Rio Vista, around 2,200 customers were without power early Tuesday morning. It was not immediately clear what caused the blackout. PG&E said it is still trying to determine the cause and would provide an estimated time of restoration later in the day.
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