PG&E preemptively cuts power to 62,000 customers
In Northern California, nearly 62,000 utility customers across 26 counties had lost electricity as of Thursday after Pacific Gas and Electric began proactively shutting off power Wednesday night. The utility cut service to reduce the risk of strong winds blowing over power lines and sparking wildfires.
The National Weather Service forecast issued Thursday warned that “a moderate to strong Santa Ana wind” would bring widespread strong winds and critical fire weather conditions to much of Southwest California through Saturday. Strong, dry winds could reach 20 to 40 mph, with gusts from 50 to 70 mph in the San Gabriel mountains in Los Angeles County and the Santa Susana mountains, mostly in Ventura County, officials said. Critical fire weather conditions are also forecast for portions of the Santa Lucia mountains in San Luis Obispo county. The agency also issued fire weather warnings for parts of central and Northern California starting Thursday and lasting through Friday morning, noting that any fires would spread rapidly.
“It’s a pretty widespread event of elevated fire weather, so the whole SoCal region should really be on alert,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore said staffing has been augmented and equipment pre-deployed so crews will be ready. “We are asking residents to do their part, too,” he added. “Clear the streets, have a plan and stay informed.”
California’s Office of Emergency Services increased its coordination and readied resources to support local officials should disaster strike, according to spokesperson Chris Dargan. Kevin McGowan, director of Los Angeles’s office of emergency management, urged residents to prepare for multiple overlapping hazards. “People should continue to prepare not just for one hazard,” he said during a recent briefing, “but all hazards.”
The elevated fire risks arrive amid a turbulent autumn that has already brought severe heat waves, high surf and flooding to the state. On the heels of a recent storm surge that battered the California coast, the weather whiplash has left residents reeling. The Santa Ana winds in this week’s forecast are expected during this time of year, with higher fire dangers typically lingering in the state through November. Destructive conditions fueled by a potentially historic El Niño brewing in the Pacific will continue to mount through the end of this year and into next. The impacts, which have already raised sea levels, increased temperatures, and supercharged storms in the Pacific, layer on top of natural hazards and those driven by the human-caused climate crisis.
“If there is any significant fire activity this week it would be somewhat poorly timed in the context of El Niño,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an online briefing Wednesday. “We know the likelihood of a wet winter in southern California is now very high. [Fire] would further raise the stakes.”
In Los Angeles, where strong Santa Ana winds fueled the 2025 firestorm that killed more than 30 people, the warnings were sharply felt. Neighborhoods are still being rebuilt after multiple blazes consumed more than 16,000 structures, leaving burn scars that have heightened the danger of debris flows and landslides should severe storms materialize this winter.