PG&E warns thousands of northern California customers of weekend power cuts amid fire risk

PG&E announced that critical fire-weather conditions could trigger public-safety power shutoffs for roughly 14,000 customers in northern California over the weekend. Shutoffs are likely Saturday and Sunday in El Dorado, Lassen, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra and Tehama counties, while Butte, Colusa, Glenn and Yolo counties will be monitored for possible outages on Sunday and into Monday. The utility stressed that any interruptions will be targeted at specific areas rather than applied countywide.

Forecasts call for gusts of 25-35 mph in the Bay Area and 40-50 mph in the North and Central Sierra, combined with relative humidity dropping to 10-25 %, creating a high fire-spread risk. The National Weather Service issued a Fire Weather Watch warning that any ignitions could spread quickly. Cooler, drier weather is expected after the weekend, though fire potential remains above normal through September.