Nearly a month after strong Santa Ana winds breathed life into raging wildfires in southern California, utilities in the state are bracing for more rough weather, this time in the form of winter storms.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) said the storms are forecasted throughout much of its service area, and the utility has positioned crews and resources across its service area to support the response to restore any storm-related damage and restore power that may result from the forecasted heavy rain and strong winds.
PG&E’s in-house meteorologists forecast that the storm, which arrived Monday, Feb. 3, will move southward through Tuesday bringing 40 to 55-plus mph winds along the North Coast, higher Bay Area elevations, and the North Valley.
The first wave of the storm could deliver 50-60 mph winds on the Peninsula and Central Coast along with several inches of rain and heavy snow above 6,000 feet elevation. After a brief pause Wednesday, a second storm will arrive Thursday and is expected to deliver wind, rain, and high-elevation snow through Friday, per PG&E’s meteorologists.
Using AI and machine learning, PG&E’s meteorology team has developed a storm outage prediction model that incorporates real-time weather forecasts, historical data, and system knowledge to predict where and when storm impacts will be most severe. This model is meant to enable PG&E to pre-stage crews, power poles, powerlines, transformers, and other electric equipment across its service area as storms approach to enable quicker responses to outages.
