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Santa Cruz County placed on red flag warning starting Tuesday – Santa Cruz Sentinel
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Santa Cruz County placed on red flag warning starting Tuesday – Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ — For the second time in less than a month, weather officials are warning that an extreme wind event this week will bring dangerous fire conditions to the Central Coast.

As forecasters predict wind speeds ranging from 20 mph to 50 mph in high elevation areas and relative humidity that could dip into the single digits, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Monday that includes all of Washington County. Holy Cross. The call to remain on high alert for potentially devastating wildfires will officially begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Election Day, in the county and across the country, and will extend until 7 a.m. Thursday.

“It’s a combination of the offshore winds and the dry conditions,” said Roger Gass, a weather service meteorologist. “The main concern will be from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.”

The red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions, where even a small spark can spark a disastrous wildfire, are likely imminent, particularly in areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains where grasslands are still very dry and expected higher speed wind gusts. sweep.

Gass warned the public against engaging in any activity that could result in ignition and emphasized the dangers of unsecured metal tow chains dragged from the back of moving vehicles that could spread sheets of hot embers into dry brush along the way. along local roads.

“That’s one of the biggest contributing factors to fire starts,” Gass said.

Utility provider Pacific Gas & Electric Co., for its part, announced it was stepping up fire protection efforts by planning a series of safety power shutoffs that could affect 20,000 customers in four tribal areas and 17 counties, including Santa Cruz. The first set of outages will occur at 7pm Tuesday at the earliest if weather conditions do not improve.

Jason Hoppin, a spokesman for Santa Cruz County, told the Sentinel on Monday that no polling places were included within the scope of the security closures and that the election will proceed smoothly.

“We recognize that Tuesday, November 5, is Election Day and we will do everything we can to ensure a smooth election process,” PG&E South Bay and Central Coast Region Vice President Teresa Alvarado said in a statement. . “We began working with state and local election officials more than a month ago (ago) to ensure reliability at polling places and tabulation centers.”

According to the PG&E outage map, available at page.com/pspsupdatesAreas of the county within the scope of the closure include the upper region of the Soquel Demonstration State Forest near Summit Road and sections next to The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park along Eureka Canyon Road. PG&E has notified customers who could be affected, according to the statement.

The red flag warning comes just days after the county received its first bout of wet weather in weeks, although experts say it won’t be enough to provide much protection against dangerous fire conditions. A smaller wind event hit the county Sunday and early Monday, Gass said, likely erasing most of the moisture benefits that had been gained over the weekend.

The wet weather system moved across the Central Coast area on Friday night and early Saturday and brought a light dusting of rain to the arid landscape. Sentinel weather observers reported 0.55 inches of rain in Ben Lomond and 0.45 inches in Soquel.

“It rained pretty good last week,” Hoppin said. “However, I think the concern is that the wind will dry up the water and make the fields vulnerable again.”

This vulnerability is nothing new as county officials, fire crews and PG&E were mobilized during a similarly precarious low humidity wind event just a few weeks ago. Strong winds of more than 50 mph in mountainous regions had experts on alert during several days in mid-October as firefighters reinforced their staff in anticipation of an emergency and PG&E implemented a series of safety shutdowns in heavily forested regions of the county.

But even with all the preparations underway, Hoppin said a fairly large number of residents suffered outages during the last wind storm due to downed power lines and fallen branches, and this upcoming event brings with it a possible repeat.

“I would expect to see more outages starting Tuesday and continuing into Wednesday that are not related to the public safety power shutoff,” he said.

Red flag warning

Where: Santa Cruz County and Central Coast.

When: 11 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Thursday.

Why: Strong winds will bring critical fire weather conditions to the local landscape, which remains extremely dry.

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