By Jacob Pierce, Good Times News Editor
CENTRAL COAST—Small fires popped up around the San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay early Sunday morning as rare lightning storms struck the area, during what has already been a wild weekend for weather in Northern California and along the Central Coast.
At the end of a day in which temperatures soared higher than 100 degrees in some areas, rolling blackouts began rippling through the state for the second day in a row. Saturday’s blackouts affected PG&E customers in parts of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Joaquin counties. Friday and Saturday marked the first time since 2001 that the state saw rolling blackouts to conserve energy. The California Independent System Operator is asking residents to conserve energy and turn thermostats to 78 degrees or higher during the current heatwave.
The outages are not like the public safety power outages in the past, PG&E said Saturday. Those outages are implemented during California’s fire season when weather conditions threaten to increase the chance of a blaze being lit and spreading quickly.
Elsewhere in California, the Sacramento Bee reported Saturday that a firenado had erupted in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Santa Cruz County’s strange weather got stranger after midnight. By 3am Sunday, fierce winds were whipping through Santa Cruz County and lightning began to strike.
A red flag warning is in effect through 11am Sunday from Monterey County to the northern San Francisco Bay Area, according to the National Weather Service.
Several fires started early Sunday morning, and there were many other incidents as well. Between 12:07 and 7:35am, there were 68 calls for fire service in Santa Cruz County, including 29 for instances of downed wires and 17 for fires, according to the Santa Cruz Fire Dispatch Twitter page.
At 3:29am Cal Fire tweeted that rain was helping to control a fire near Highway 17. It was fully contained by 7am.
At 4:27 a.m., Cal Fire stated that firefighters were at the scene of seven vegetation fires in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties.
As of 6am, the biggest of those fires had grown to 10 acres and was north of Davenport.
Over the hill, a fire near Livermore was 50% contained at 50 acres as of 6:46am, and it was fully contained by 7am.
A recent Santa Cruz County Grand Jury report argued that Santa Cruz County’s fire agencies are unprepared for high fire risk.
Additional reporting by Janice Bitters.
