Red Flag Warning for North Santa Barbara County

Down south in the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, strong wind gusts were fulfilling the Red Flag fire warning in effect since Sunday night. Inland portions of Santa Barbara’s North County are under the Red Flag today, with dry wind gusts out of the northeast of 20-30 mph expected through Tuesday. The humidity values are expected to recover into the 30-40 percent range Monday evening, the National Weather Service predicted in the morning. As of about 3 p.m., Santa Ynez Airport was reporting the strongest winds, about 22mph gusts, and heat of 77 degrees; humidity was 36 percent. The Red Flag currently ends at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, October 16.

North County is served by PG&E, which had cut power to about 60,000 of its Northern California customers in anticipation of fire weather. In the high Sierra neighborhood of Kirkwood, wind gusts hit 121 mph Sunday night, said Paul Doherty, a PG&E spokesperson. In the North Bay, it was 70mph gusts, and sustained winds of 60 mph. Doherty said the electric company gave 48-, 24-, and one-hour warnings in advance of such power shutdowns. To sign up for notifications, go to pge.com/wildfiresafety.