High winds presage tough fire season

Weather service issues wind watch where ‘biggest concern will be trees coming down, power lines getting impacted’

“These north winds will help to dry us out. Fire season is right around the corner.” — Matt Mehle, meteorologist

With fire season in California fast approaching, the National Weather Service issued a wind watch for parts of the Bay Area on Friday night, stating strong gusts could result in downed power lines and increased fire danger.

The wind watch, issued Tuesday night, is mainly for the North and East Bay hills above 1,000 feet, said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“The biggest concern will be trees coming down, maybe some power lines getting impacted,” Mehle said. “It’s not an overly strong event, but stronger than what we’ve seen lately.”

The strongest winds are expected around 8 p.m. Friday night in the Napa Hills and then spread over the East Bay, Marin and Santa Cruz mountains, according to the weather service. Sustained winds of 20 to 35 mph are expected, with frequent gusts in excess of 50 mph in some locations.

The watch serves as a reminder that fire season in California is just around the corner, Mehle said. The expected strong winds come at the end of wildfire awareness week, an effort by Cal Fire to prepare residents for the upcoming fire season.

“These north winds will help to dry us out,” Mehle said. “Fire season is right around the corner.”

The Cal Fire unit in Santa Clara, which covers Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa and the western portions of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, has been ramping up its wildfire preparedness efforts, anticipating fire season will be declared

sometime in the coming weeks. Returning seasonal firefighters have participated in annual training and been deployed to stations throughout the Bay Area, according to Cal Fire spokeswoman Pam Temmermand.

Cal Fire has not officially announced when fire season will be declared; last year, it began May 29. When fire season is declared, Cal Fire stations will be staffed around the clock, and air tankers and fire attack planes are deployed from the maintenance location in Sacramento to “strategic positions around the state.

“The weather is upon us and the wind is here,” Temmermand said. “We are staffing up the last of our fire stations.”

Temmermand said now is the time for residents to create a defensible space around their homes, which includes removing dead grass, plants and weeds and trimming trees and plants.