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California heat wave raises deadly wildfires, blackout risk over 4th of July holiday week
In California, intense heat and gusty winds across are raising the risk of wildfires heading into the July 4 holiday.
Intense heat and gusty winds across California are raising the risk of wildfires heading into the July 4 holiday, prompting the state’s largest utility to warn it may have to shut off power lines to prevent blazes.
PG&E Corp. said it may cut power to 12,000 homes and businesses on Tuesday, most in northern, rural areas where stiff winds are expected along with triple-digit temperatures. Such shutoffs — designed to ensure that swaying power lines don’t shoot sparks into dry grass — have become a fact of summer life across western states after years of deadly wildfires caused by electric equipment.
PG&E has so far avoided such shutoffs this year. Edison International’s Southern California utility is not planning any safety shutoffs for the coming days, according to its website.
Excessive heat and red flag warnings have been posted through California’s Central Valley and west almost to the Pacific Coast, the US National Weather Service said. Sacramento’s high is forecast to reach 104F (40C) on Monday, but soar to 111F Wednesday, which would be just one degree shy of a record for the date, set in 1991. From Wednesday to Saturday, 76 weather stations across the US may threaten or break high temperature records, with the majority in the West.
“It gets progressively hotter,” said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center. “It definitely builds through the weekend.”
Even before this week’s heat, California has seen a growing number of fires, as lush spring grasses dry out in the state’s mostly rain-free summer. So far 2,696 fires have burned 118,149 acres across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
