Is Northern California at risk for wildfires this week? Beware of high winds, officials say
Northerly winds and high temperatures across Northern California this week bring with it the potential for wildfire risk from the capital region to the foothills of the Sierra.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning in place for much of the Sacramento Valley and some of the foothills from through Thursday. High pressure and warm air coming from the Great Basin and other parts of the West will push temperatures above the century mark for the first time this year, according to Sarah Purdue, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office.
After daytime highs Tuesday were expected to reach 102 degrees in Sacramento, the heat will kick up to as high as 108 in some Valley locations, Purdue said. Foothill locations on Wednesday could reach 101, she said. Purdue said some cooling was expected into the weekend, with Friday highs expected to be around 103 in the Valley and as high as 97 degree in some higher elevations.
But the winds are more concerning, especially as vegetation and other fuels start drying out for the season.
Warmer winds from the north were expected Tuesday to gust to 30 mph, according to Purdue, before easing through the rest of the week. That’s one reason the weather service issued a “minor” risk of elevated fire weather and not a red flag warning.
Still, emergency personnel remain vigilant after the first major fire of the season exploded to more than 14,000 acres near Tracy over the weekend. The Corral Fire was 90% contained, Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit said in an update Tuesday after it had burned one home and several structures, and shutdown a major thoroughfare connecting Southern California to the Bay Area.
Capt. Dan Collins of Cal Fire’s Butte County Unit said northerly winds — winds that blow from north to south — could pick up further on Wednesday in Valley spots north of Sacramento. This can dry out fire fuels like dead grasses and leaves, making them more susceptible to ignition, especially at altitudes below 1,500 feet.
Already on Tuesday, firefighters were hard at work keeping stray sparks from igniting land swaths of grassland across the capital region. The Sacramento Fire Department reported it extinguished a two-alarm vegetation fire on Rimmer Avenue in North Sacramento’s Gardenland neighborhood. The fire burned close to several homes adjacent to Steelhead Creek, before crews were able to contain the flames.
Collins said that north wind events can happen at any time of year — strong north winds that last for a week or longer are most common in the fall months.
The weather service encouraged people in the area to mitigate fire risk by properly disposing of cigarettes and matches, avoiding power equipment that may create sparks, not letting vehicle parts drag along the ground and not using lawn equipment on dry or dead grass.
Battalion Chief Parker Wilbourn of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said that crews in the county have already put out a significant number of grass fires that were started by lawnmowers or other field equipment.
“We would prefer trimmers (over lawnmowers) for grass greater than a foot to prevent sparks,” he said. He also encouraged people clearing fields of burn — critical to ward off fires through the summer months — to “do their abatement early in the morning, preferably before 9 a.m.”
He mentioned one specific fire that crews battled last week that threatened several homes in Orangevale. Homeowners and others nearby were grateful for the quick response, he said.
“Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your quick action this morning and utilization of resources,” Stacy Whitley, wrote on Facebook about the fire coming close to her grandmother’s home. “You undoubtedly saved 5-6 homes today which with only a few minute delay could have been burning as well.”
The fire, which charred 3 acres along the 6400 block of Beech Avenue, was started by a mower and deemed accidental.
Wilbourn said his department — as was the case with all departments in the region — was on alert with the heat and the winds but would be focusing on prescribed fires to tamp down vegetation threats once conditions improved.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Is Northern California at risk for wildfires this week? Beware of high winds, officials say."
