The state grid operator canceled the threat of rotating power outages late Saturday, as the struggling electricity grid managed to keep up with air conditioning demand in the intense heat. But the highwire act could be repeated Sunday, when temperatures are expected to get even higher.
And it doesn’t stop there.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is considering shutting off power to parts of Northern California, including Napa and Sonoma counties, on Monday and Tuesday as a fire weather watch — which could become a red flag warning — is forecast for the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills from Monday evening to Wednesday morning.
The goal would be to reduce the risk of fire caused by utility equipment. It would mark the first such public safety power shut-off of this fire season.
“The odds are that we will see red flag warnings pop up soon with this heat,” said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. “And unfortunately, it might be some time before we lose this fire weather criteria.”
Even as containment of the three major Bay Area fire complexes increased, a wildfire that started Friday in Sierra National Forest exploded to 36,000 acres by Saturday evening, trapping at least 150 people in a vacation area near the Mammoth Pool Reservoir in Fresno County. The Madera County Sheriff’s officials tweeted Saturday evening that the trapped people were sheltering in place at the reservoir, and 10 people have reported injures.
The Creek Fire — burning near Shaver Lake, Huntington Lake, and Big Creek — was uncontained Saturday night and was tearing through the rugged, forested foothills of eastern Fresno County, threatening 3,000 structures and causing a harried evacuation of thousands of residents and weekend visitors.
In photos posted on Twitter by Fresno’s KMPH-TV, large recreational vehicles and trucks congregated in a dirt field as the fire burned around them, torching pines and emitting puffs of gray-brown smoke. Embers streaked through the air like comets.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said in a tweet that a “massive pyrocumulus cloud (is) indicative of extreme fire behavior, & pyrotornado may have occurred” in the Creek Fire.
A generator and a solar farm were unable to produce power Saturday because of fires — it is not clear which ones — according to the California Independent System Operator, which manages the state power grid. That was part of the reason the system operator anticipated possible rolling shut-offs Saturday, though it said around 8:30 p.m. that outages were not needed.
A Flex Alert is in place across California for afternoons and evenings through Monday, as another heat wave prompted officials to ask for energy conservation.
On Saturday, plenty of Bay Area residents fled the house to escape the heat as temperatures soared. Temperatures in the traditional East Bay hot spots of Livermore, Walnut Creek and Concord were expected to get as high as 114 Sunday.
Around noon Saturday, as the temperature in breezy Alameda climbed, the parking lots at Crown Memorial Beach filled, and beachgoers poured out of cars, minivans and RVs, lugging chairs, towels, colorful beach umbrellas and coolers to the sandy shore.
Despite the dangers posed by the coronavirus and warnings from health officials about avoiding crowds, people flocked to the East Bay Regional Park District beach. Most said they felt safe and much more comfortable than they would have inside their hot, stuffy homes.
“One of our deciding factors was not having air conditioning,” said Erik Buttram, who lives in Alameda and came to the beach with his wife, two children and a windsurfer and wing foil-board. “You’ll hear that a lot today.”
Most of the beachgoers wore masks in the parking lots and while picking socially distanced spots on the sand, but many removed the masks on the beach and certainly when entering the water. Most people seemed to stick to their own groups of two to five people and avoid smacking into others — even those taking windsurfing lessons.
“We feel like we’ve got a lot of space and that people are respectful of other families and groups,” said Maria Buttram, whose family was planning to get in their beach time before it got too crowded.
“We’ve got a stagnant dome of high pressure stuck over our area, and that’s the big story right now,” said meteorologist Gerry Diaz. “Hopefully the marine layer will stick around the coast for a little while, but everywhere else will be hot and dry.”
The heat also made for challenging conditions for firefighters still battling the huge LNU, SCU and CZU complex fires all over the Bay Area. Firefighters are lengthening containment lines with 88% containment of the SCU fires in the East Bay and South Bay, 89% on the North Bay LNU fires and 64% on the CZU fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains and San Mateo County. High temperatures not only make firefighting more miserable, they also dry out vegetation and make it tougher to keep fires contained.
An excessive heat warning is in effect through Sunday night for most of the Bay Area. Along the coast, a heat advisory was in effect.
In San Mateo County, beaches were ordered closed as a precaution against overcrowding during the pandemic.
“This is a huge test for all of us this Labor Day weekend,” county Supervisor David Canepa said in a statement. “We can respect our health orders or ignore them. It’s that simple. And just a reminder to all: Wear your damn mask.”
Winds will be light until late Monday, when they will become moderate out of the northeast, making firefighting more challenging and increasing the potential for new fires to spread quickly. But the dry lightning strikes that were blamed for the current rash of wildfires are not expected.
Cooling centers were open in community and senior centers in Concord, Martinez, Pleasanton, Livermore, Antioch and Brentwood, among other locations. Visitors were requested to wear face masks, maintain social distancing and be free of COVID-19 symptoms.
Air quality was moderate in much of the Bay Area on Saturday. A Spare the Air Alert has been extended through Monday.
On Saturday morning, the small parking lot where Sloat Boulevard meets the Pacific Ocean was completely full by 7 a.m., and cars were double-parked with emergency lights flashing.
Jill Gunter of Pacifica brought her 7-foot surfboard to San Francisco after finding her hometown beaches closed.
“I literally got the last parking space,” she said. “It’s very unusual for it to get this warm, but you don’t think about the heat when you’re surfing.”
A few early risers were laying down towels and staking out beach spots for the day. By 7:30 a.m., hardly anyone was wearing a jacket.
A mile east, at Stern Grove, the dog walkers were getting an early start, too.
“It’s a day to get here early and leave early,” said Rita Lewis of San Francisco, who was walking her Labradoodle, Lily. “I like to get here around 6 a.m. anyway, because of the pandemic. It’s never crowded at that hour. Don’t tell anyone.”
At Crown Memorial Beach, Succatti Shaw of Hayward set up for a family party. Her 16-year-old daughter had brain surgery two years ago and hasn’t seen friends of the family since March.
“It’s just too much,” she said. “She needs to get out of the house.”
So about 30 family members, from Sacramento to San Jose, planned to gather at the beach, even though health officials advise keeping gatherings smaller. Shaw and the rest of the small set-up crew staked out a wide area on a hill above the beach and said everyone would wear masks and try to keep their distance.
“Some people feel it’s safe, and some people don’t,” she said. “But at the end of the day, my daughter’s mental health is what’s most important to me. We’re looking forward to catching and showing each other some love — with proper social distancing.”
Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hernández contributed to this report.
Michael Cabanatuan, Steve Rubenstein and Lizzie Johnson are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF, @ctuan, @lizziejohnsonnn
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