PG&E may cut power to 30 counties for 'severe wind event'

PG&E is monitoring high winds this week. PG&E is monitoring high winds this week. Photo: National Weather Service Photo: National Weather Service Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close PG&E may cut power to 30 counties for 'severe wind event' 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

UPDATE: PG&E announced Tuesday afternoon that it will be shutting off power to 800,000 customers starting early Wednesday morning.

ORIGINAL STORY: PG&E is monitoring 30 of California's 58 counties for a potential power shut-off due to a "severe wind event" forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

The National Weather Service has issued a fire weather watch for the North and East bay hills, Santa Cruz Mountains, and the North Bay and East Bay valleys. The alert is for Tuesday night through Thursday. Because of dry conditions, very low humidity and gusting winds, there's a high potential for fire danger.

PG&E announced Monday morning it is watching weather conditions in order to determine if power needs to be turned off in Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Mariposa, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba counties.

MORE: Days-long PG&E outages may be coming. Here's what to do if you lose power for days

Significant winds will be coming out of the northwest, blowing from inland areas toward the ocean. These are the gusty conditions that create critical fire weather. The north to northeast winds, often called Diablo winds, will be blowing 15 to 25 mph with isolated gusts up to 45 mph.

The shut-off warning comes just a day before the anniversary of the North Bay Fires; the destructive series of wildfires sparked on Oct. 8, 2017.

If your power is going to be shut off, PG&E says it will contact you via telephone, text and/or email with a timeline for shut-offs. PG&E recommends unplugging or turning off appliances to avoid damage caused by a power surge. If possible, keep cell phones and other devices charged and make sure your supply of flashlight batteries is fully stocked.

In addition, ATMs and gas stations may be out of service during outages so prepare accordingly.

BART is not expecting to be impacted by any outages, as they have generators and power redundancies with which to operate trains.

For the latest on PG&E's Public Safety Power Shutoffs, visit their site.

ALSO: Bay Area officials advise residents against using N95 masks for wildfire smoke

SFGATE digital reporter Amy Graff contributed to this report.

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Manager. Email: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd