“Strong winds” expected in San Francisco Bay

A low pressure system known as the ‘inner slider’ will descend from the Pacific Northwest and burrow through the Great Basin Thursday into Friday, generating ideal conditions for strong, gusty northerly winds and increasing the risk wildfire in northern California.
An accompanying dry system will cross Northern California early today before running out of steam along the Central Coast this
afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
“A targeted surge of dry northerly winds will accompany this system through the Sacramento Valley before affecting eastern portions of the Bay Area tonight through Friday morning,” the weather service said in its forecast.
The weather service released a wind warning for indoor locations across the Bay Area which is in effect from 11 p.m. Thursday to 2 p.m. Friday. Northerly winds of 20 to 30 mph with isolated gusts up to 50 mph are expected in the North Bay Interior Mountains, East Santa Clara Hills and East Bay Hills.
“The winds won’t be strong enough along the coast to have a wind advisory, but it will be in inland areas because that’s where we’ll get those 40+ mph winds,” the forecaster said. weather services Jeff Lorber.
A huge strip of California stretching across the Central Valley will be under a red flag warning Thursday and Friday, which means warm temperatures, very low humidity, strong winds and dry conditions are expected to produce an increased risk of wildfire danger. Solano County in the Bay Area is included in this warning, but none of the other eight counties are.
The Weather Service’s Bay Area office issued a message of high fire concerns Thursday and Friday with dry, windy weather in the forecast – but that’s not an official advisory.
“We haven’t released an official product, but we’re very concerned,” said Brooke Bingaman, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office. “We are close to critical levels but not quite at critical levels.”
Bingaman said the situation is less critical in the Bay Area, where grasses and vegetation have more moisture than in the Central Valley. “Some of our fuels are still green enough, and that’s part of why we’re not at critical levels yet,” she said. “These winds are going to help dry fuels further, which means we’re heading into that time of year when we need to start thinking about wildfire preparedness.”
Meteorologists are forecasting a change in the weather for northern California this week with hot, dry and windy conditions that should increase the risk of wildfires starting and spreading.
On Wednesday, the San Francisco Bay Area saw the forecast begin to unfold. With high pressures building over the region, temperatures spiked Wednesday across the Bay Area. Santa Rosa peaked at 95, Livermore 92 and Novato 90.
Temperatures on Thursday will be slightly cooler than they were on Wednesday.
“High temperatures on Thursday will range from the 80s to near 90s for inland areas with cooler 60s and lower 70s along the coast and bays,” the weather service said in its forecast. “Expect a few degrees of cooling by Friday as the upper low moves east. Lows will be mostly in the upper 40s and 50s.”