Today temperatures are wonderful in the low-to-mids 70s for the afternoon and into the 50s overnight in the valley. Sunny skies and a light breeze today. But big changes are coming.
We are about to have VERY extreme fire danger, mostly Sunday into Monday. A RED FLAG WARNING has been issued starting Sunday at 11 a.m. and lasting until Tuesday at 5 p.m. This will be the driest and windiest event of the year. Hurricanes have sustained wind speeds greater than 74 mph. We won't see sustained winds that strong but in some mountain canyons and gaps, we could see winds gusting that strong. This is quite serious. Have a go-bag ready in case you need to evacuate quickly. Quick and significant fire spread will be possible if a wildfire is started in a strong wind-prone area, and even more dangerous in areas such as Jarbo Gap or along some ridgelines. Winds will be strongest as a low-pressure system to our east slides south in Utah and Nevada into Arizona. Widespread PG&E power shutoffs will also affect almost half a million customers. That means well over a million people will be impacted. I'm not trying to scare you. I just want you all to be prepared and safe! We have lost too many people to this year's wildfire season. No rain in the forecast yet, but hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer.
The strongest winds will be on Sunday gusting 30-40 mph in the valley from the north and 40-60 mph in the Sierra-Cascades and Coast Ranges. Some canyons and gaps in the Sierra foothills could gut more than 70 mph. Humidity could get as low as 5%! Monday will still be breezy with gusts 15-40 mph, but extremely dry conditions will continue, keeping fire danger critical.
Overnight lows in the valley Sunday night could get in the 40s and overnight lows in the Sierra-Cascades will be in the teens to single-digits. A very hard freeze. Protect plants and animals from the cold.
Highs stay in the 70s and 60s Sunday-Monday in the Valley and 50s to 40s in the mountains.
Tuesday we begin warming up. Upper-70s to low-80s Tuesday-Thursday in the valley.
We see a subtle cooldown on Friday through next weekend with highs back in the low-70s and maybe a few clouds Friday.
