Updated 6 p.m. Wednesday
Gusty winds and low humidity brought high risk of wildfires to the interior of Northern California on Wednesday and Pacific Gas & Electric proactively cut electricity to approximately 8,400 customers to prevent potential ignitions in the blustery conditions.
Red flag warnings for critical fire danger were to remain in effect until 8 p.m. in much of the Sacramento Valley and adjacent areas to the west, the National Weather Service said.
Pacific Gas & Electric said that shortly before 2 a.m., it began public safety power shutoffs in “targeted high-fire-threat areas” of eight counties. Winds calmed throughout the afternoon, and by 5 p.m. the utility issued a weather “all-clear,” saying it would begin the process of restoring electricity.
Smoke from the wildfires is impacting the Bay Area today, according to Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesperson Kristina Chu. Chu noted the Fire and Smoke map from AirNow shows that there are more smoke impacts that can be seen around the Bay Area compared to earlier this week.
“The wildfires will continue to emit substantial amount of smoke and is expected to continue impacting the Bay Area for the foreseeable future,” she said in an email to KQED. “We do have a Spare The Air alert in place today and are evaluating conditions for tomorrow/coming week.”