More Than 30,000 in Northern California Without Power Amid Winds and Wildfire Risk

More than 34,000 PG&E customers in the Bay Area remained without power on Monday, as high winds and dry conditions increased wildfire risk across the region.

As of 9:49 a.m., Monday, the utility’s outage map showed more than 813 current outages, and 34,549 customers affected, due to a combination of planned public safety power shutoffs and unplanned outages. The outage continued from Sunday, when more than 40,000 customers were affected, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The utility said it cut power in parts of Napa, Marin, Sonoma and Santa Cruz counties to prevent wildfire. Elsewhere in the South Bay and Sonoma counties, thousands of customers were affected by unplanned outages that PG&E said were caused by a storm. PG&E estimated that those outages would end throughout the afternoon.

The preventative shutoffs come as warm weather and gusty winds arrived in the Bay Area over the weekend. The National Weather Service issued a high wind advisory overnight Sunday for the Santa Cruz and interior North Bay Mountains, along with the Eastern Santa Clara and East Bay Hills.

Gusts up to 60 mph and sustained winds between 15 and 30 mph blew through the region overnight.

Winds are expected to ebb on Monday afternoon. Fire risk was still elevated, though, due to relatively low humidity and hotter-than-expected conditions. The National Weather Service said temperatures were recording about 6 degrees higher than forecasted due to stronger-than-expected offshore winds bringing in warmer and drier air inland. The interior Bay Area could reach the high 80s and low 90s later in the day, while the coast remains in the 70s.

“Elevated fire weather concerns continue through today across the interior with low humidities and strong gusts,” the weather service said.