Heat wave: Sonoma County health officials issue heat alert as PG&E prepares for possible outages

Officials are bracing for a heat wave that could set record temperatures for this time of year in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County.

A high pressure system is expected to bring temperatures ranging form the low 90s to the low 100s Thursday and Friday, according to meteorologists.

Forecasts of furnace-like conditions prompted Sonoma County health officials on Tuesday to issue an advisory. Such conditions, they said, “can cause heat stroke and worsen chronic medical conditions, leading to severe complications and death.”

The advisory urges residents to use air conditioners, drink extra fluids, stay out of the sun, check on neighbors and avoid leaving people or animals in parked cars.

“As always, during emergency times we must continue to look out for one another,” Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said in the advisory.

“Keep in close contact with family, friends and neighbors who are medically fragile or work outdoors,” she added.

The city of Santa Rosa has plans to activate a cooling center, it announced on its website, should the heat make such a step necessary.

While the Central Valley will “take the brunt” of that heat wave, said Drew Peterson, a Monterey-based meteorologist for the National Weather Service, inland portions of the Bay Area, “including the North Bay, Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, will be pushing triple digit” temperatures on Thursday.

With extreme heat in the forecast, the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s electrical grid, issued a statewide Flex Alert late Wednesday afternoon, encouraging people to conserve electricity from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday.

“The public’s help is essential when extreme weather or other factors beyond our control put undue stress on the electric grid,” said Elliot Mainzer, the group’s CEO, in a statement. “Their cooperation can really make a difference.”

During extreme heat, grid operations are under the most stress in the evening, when demand for electricity — air conditioners, mostly — remains high while solar energy diminishes.

The high pressure system baking the American West is a nearly 4-mile-high umbrella of heat, Peterson said. It comes during a time of severe drought and could subject some 40 million people in seven states to 100-degrees-plus temperatures over the next few days.

The hottest locations could see highs reach 110 degrees on Thursday and Friday, while offshore winds are expected to keep the coast cooler, meteorologists said.

PG&E is preparing for possible power failures that could be triggered by the heat, spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said Wednesday. High temperatures can cause electric equipment to fail, she noted.

The utility is targeting Thursday as the most likely day for blackouts and is bulking up staffing in Santa Rosa that day in order to more quickly respond to equipment problems in the area, Contreras said.

No preemptive power shut-offs are planned.

Many will try to cope with the heat by flocking to area beaches and parks. Meda Freeman, spokeswoman for Sonoma County Regional Parks, reminds people that parks along the Russian River and Bodega Bay “get really busy on weekends or hot days.” Her advice: Arrive early. If the parking lot is full, have a backup plan.

“If you’re heading up to Doran Beach and the lot is full when you get there, consider going further up the coast to Stillwater Cove, or the Sea Ranch beaches, or Gualala Point,” she said. Park rangers issue real time updates on the status of parking lots on Twitter, she added, @sonomaparks.

Sonoma County Regional Parks is also reminding visitors that, because of the drought, river conditions are different than in previous summers. “The flow is lower,” said Freeman. “People need to be careful. Places they might have dived or jumped in aren’t going to be the same this year.”

You can reach Staff Writers Matt Pera at matthew.pera@pressdemocrat.com and Austin Murphy at 707-521-5214 or austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.