- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Winds knock out power to thousands of county residents; hazardous conditions forecast to continue
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service on Thursday issued an urgent wind advisory and a hazardous weather outlook for Lake County and other portions of Northern California, while thousands of county residents at one point found themselves temporarily without power due to weather conditions.
Gusting winds around Lake County on Thursday are believed to have contributed to a series of power outages – ranging from Upper Lake to Hidden Valley Lake – that were reported beginning in the late afternoon and continuing into the early evening.
Firefighters in Lakeport, Kelseyville, Clearlake Oaks and Upper Lake were dispatched on reports of downed power and phone lines, and damaged utility equipment, based on radio reports.
At one point early Thursday evening, the power was out for a total of 5,000 customers across Lake County as the result of 25 separate outages, according to Pacific Gas and Electric spokesperson Jana Morris.
Morris said a majority of those outages were weather-related, with one outage due to an object on the power lines.
One of the outages impacted 4,800 customers in the Clearlake Oaks and Clearlake areas. Most of those customers had power restored between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., Morris said.
She said about 400 people across Lake County were still without power as of 6:30 p.m., with 107 of them in the area covered by the Lucerne substation.
Morris didn't have an estimated time for power restoration to those affected by the continuing outages.
In a wind advisory issued on Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service warned of strong north to east winds that are expected to continue throughout the region into Friday night.
The strongest winds are expected on Thursday night, according to forecasters.
The advisory, in effect until 4 a.m. Saturday, anticipates winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 50 miles per hour.
Lighter winds are forecast through the weekend, at which point showers also are expected to clear, the agency said.
The windy conditions are the result of strong high pressure building in the Pacific Northwest, combined with a deep low pressure system off of the Southern California coast, the National Weather Service reported.
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