PG&E power shutoffs begin in California amid red flag warning

About 5,450 customers in parts of Colusa, Glenn, Tehama and Shasta counties lost power around 12:40 p.m. Thursday, according to the utility. PG&E could cut power to parts of 20 other counties, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties in the Bay Area and five tribal areas. In total, around 20,000 customers could temporarily lose power, PG&E announced on Thursday.

According to the utility, the threat of shutdowns at some locations could continue into Saturday afternoon.

PG&E is triggering preemptive outages in areas where dry and hot conditions could cause equipment to tip over, potentially starting wildfires.

A red flag warning was in effect for the Bay Area and Central Coast from Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon as the National Weather Service predicted humidity below 10% and winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.

According to the Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center, vegetation across Northern California is much drier than normal after a hot summer was followed by a heat wave in early October.

Nine counties that had previously targeted closures in the central and eastern parts of the state were removed from the utility’s list after rains in the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday morning reduced the risk of wildfires and spared about 15,000 customers, according to the utility.