High Wind — North Bay Mountains, California

2022-01-22 · North Bay Mountains, California

Event narrative

A fire started at Geyser Peak early Saturday morning, and grew to about 5 acres before fire crews were able to get it contained. Reports say that the fire initially started at about 1:40am pushed by strong winds, and wind gusts up to 90 miles per hour. An additional smaller fire was reported in the 15000 block of Chalk Hill Road at about 7am, but that fire has also been contained. There were no evacuations for either fire. Power outages were reported in large parts of Sonoma County, including along Chalk Hill Road, in the hills around the Geysers, and along Highway 12 from Glen Ellen to Boyes Hot Springs, as well as to the east of the Town of Sonoma. As of 7:30am, about 6,700 customers were without power.

Wider weather episode

An Inside Slider type low pressure system tracked through the Great Basin, leading to a steep surface pressure gradient from the Great Basin to the eastern Pacific Ocean. A High Wind Warning was issued for the North Bay Mountains and Wind Advisories were issued for much of the SF Bay Area and Santa Cruz Mountains for the period Jan 21st-22nd. Gusts over 50 mph were reported at Oakland Airport and Half Moon Bay with gusts over 60 mph in higher peaks of North Bay and East Bay. Two small wildfires were ignited in Sonoma County causing minimal damage and a much larger, more destructive wildfire ignited and spread in Big Sur on the evening of the 21st, leading to evacuations. No wind products covered the Big Sur area since offshore winds were relatively light there.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 996000. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.