A red flag warning was among the alerts released by the National Weather Service on Sunday as Northern California is expected to experience intense, dry winds.
The Bay Area’s North and East Bay mountains were covered in the red flag warning, which signals increased fire risk, issued by the weather service.
The red flag warning was set for the North Bay mountains from 11 p.m. Sunday until 5 p.m. on Tuesday. The same also goes to East Bay hills and valleys, high elevations on Monterey, Santa Cruz, as well as San Benito.
“The strongest winds and gusts will be in the North Bay mountains and East Bay mountains and hills,” Cynthia Palmer, NWS meteorologist, said.
The North Bay is said to experience the peak of winds on Sunday evening into the morning of the next day.
The weather service furthered that offshore winds that can hit up to 30 mph with gusts reaching 50 mph can be expected in locations close to the Vaca Mountains and the Mayacamas.
The coastal neighborhoods in Marin and Sonoma, meanwhile, are expected to be hit by winds reaching 20mph with gusts hitting to 35 mph.
On Sunday night through Monday, winds will probably be strongest in the East Bay hills and mountains.
“Drier air will really start to impact those areas during the night tonight along with those gusty winds,” Palmer said. “Tomorrow (Monday) is going to be a windy day across the region.”
For the whole of San Francisco as well as the regions in Monterey Bay, NWS has released a wind advisory with gusts that can probably cause power outages as it can cut off tree branches, San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The coastal waters are also forecast to be hit by the winds as a gale warning was released on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. the next day for the waters in the region.
