Howling winds of hurricane force roared throughout parts of California late Monday and early Tuesday, sparking a series of fresh wildfires and leaving over 240,000 customers without electricity.
On Monday, wind gusts of over 90 miles were reported from Sacramento to the Bay Area, using a single gust reaching 100 miles near Kirkwood, east of Sacramento, CNN reported.
To place the winds in view, a Category 1 storm has winds of 74 to 95 mph.
The gusty winds kicked up new fires in Santa Cruz County, causing evacuations to 120 houses, and the nation's firefighting agency said it had reacted to at least a dozen vegetation fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties in 12 hours.
The fires were modest, with the biggest no longer than a few dozen acres, and by nightfall were"creeping" instead of hurrying, as stated by the Cal Fire site. Two were inside the area burned by last year's CZU Lightning Sophisticated inferno.
The Santa Cruz Mountains have a thick coating of"duff," dead plant under thick wood where deep smoldering embers could be restored by the end, said Cecile Juliette, a Cal Fire spokeswoman.
Yosemite National Park has been made to shut"because damage from high winds," in line with the park's site , and also two COVID-19 vaccination centers were shut down because of danger of fires.
Additionally, the mixture of those high winds and low relative humidity will continue to encourage a substantial wildfire threat, particularly along coastal regions from San Francisco to San Diego.
The Los Angeles area will visit Santa Ana winds, AccuWeather stated, such as the downtown region.
"Ordinarily, Santa Ana winds remain from downtown Los Angeles along with the L.A. Basin, yet this time, states may set up only right to attract 30- to 40-mph end gusts even in people typically calm state regions," said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Mike Doll.
The winds also cut power to homes and businesses through the Los Angeles and Ventura County areas. Some lost electricity when lines moved down in the end while some had turned away because of precaution by Southern California Edison.
"If there's a high danger of a wildfire, we might temporarily shut off electricity to your area to stop our electrical system from getting the source of ignition," the utility firm said in a announcement .
Pacific Gas and Electric Company also reported that over 17,000 clients in the Bay Area were undergoing wind associated power outages, at Tuesday night.
