As of Sunday afternoon, the Bay Area is under a Red Flag Warning, meaning the kind of dry lightning that started the recent rash of wildfires could repeat, accompanied by gusty winds.
All weekend, firefighters have made inroads battling the assortment of fires in the region, benefiting from the assistance of firefighters from other states and countries. The predicted weather stands to reverse this progress, with a band of monsoon moisture progressing northward from the south during Sunday daytime. Come late afternoon, we can expect thunderstorms which might continue till Monday morning. The storms aren’t expected to produce enough rainfall to have a positive impact on the fires. But dry lightning will be striking throughout, potentially sparking new blazes.
A bigger problem is the wind: gusts moving at 40-60 miles per hour have the potential to make the fires spread.
An alert on the City of Milpitas’ website reads in part: “This situation is extremely dangerous: please monitor media, social media and your own conditions throughout the day and overnight.”
No evacuation watches, warnings, or orders have been initiated inside of Milpitas’ city limits—but residents in unincorporated areas to the east and south of Ed Levin Park were placed under an evacuation order last week.
“Fires are already unpredictable,” said Milpitas Fire Chief Brian Sherrard in an interview with The Beat on Friday, “and weather plays a really big role.”
Sherrard later added, “Shifting winds and spot fires could change the pattern.”
Now two days later, shifting winds could be on the way.
