PG&E indicates power shut-off possible for Wednesday

Winds forecast for Wednesday and Thursday have prompted PG&E to warn of an “elevated” potential for a power shut-off that would affect parts of the North Bay, the utility said Saturday.

A map and advisory posted on PG&E’s website said that there is “considerable uncertainty regarding the strength, timing and humidity levels” of an incoming weather system expected to land Wednesday. Still, the potential for dry winds prompted PG&E to upgrade the potential for a precautionary power shut-off for a region including Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties to the lowest threshold level at which power shut-offs are possible.

The “elevated” risk status is the second-lowest level on PG&E’s four-level scale of public safety power shut-off potential, the lowest being “not expected.” The third level is “watch,” meaning that there is a reasonable chance of an outage, and the final level is “warning,” meaning that a shut-off is probable but not guaranteed.