Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has turned off the power for up to 13,000 Northern Californians to prevent wildfires from dry conditions brought on by the “diablo wind.”
A PG&E spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the utility has been monitoring high winds in its service area since Thursday afternoon. The winds are expected to exit as late as Saturday afternoon in some areas.
“This event involves strong winds and dry conditions which led to a Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS),” the spokesperson said. “The duration and extent of power outages depends on the weather in each area, and not all customers are affected for the entire period.”
The spokesperson said PG&E turns off the power to “reduce the risk of wildfire from energized power lines.”
On Thursday at about 12:40 p.m., PG&E began shutting off power across 24 counties. As of 10 a.m. on Friday, up to 13,000 customers have had their power shut off.
The spokesperson said the power company “will continue to monitor weather conditions.”
The spokesperson added that there was “a substantial wetting rainfall” in the Northern and Central Sierras on Wednesday morning. This provided “a welcome boost to dead fuel moisture and relative humidity,” allowing the removal of more than 10,000 customers from the PSPS’s scope.
The power company’s Emergency Operations Center provided notice Tuesday evening to customers in areas where power might be turned off.
The spokesperson said the criteria for a PSPS included humidity level, wind speed, condition of dry ground material, and vegetation moisture content.
The wind blows from San Francisco’s interior outward to the coast. It’s called an offshore wind for the direction the air is moving, the opposite of a typical onshore wind, which is cooled from its passage over the ocean.
The diablo is created by high pressure that builds over the West as winds blow into lower-pressure areas along the coast.
The wind is given the Spanish name for “devil” because of its hot and dry blast throughout the region, often leaving in its wake dangerous wildfire conditions that prompt local authorities to issue red flag warnings.
Extreme winds such as the Diablo, Santa Ana, and the Sundowner have been culprits in destructive wildfires in California.
The diablo wind’s most disastrous visit was in 1991 when it fanned a small fire into a wildfire throughout Oakland and Berkely, killing 25 people, injuring 150, and destroying more than 3,000 homes.
