A small vegetation fire broke out in Sonoma County Monday night after 9 p.m. amid unseasonably warm weather and high offshore winds.
Updates provided over the Sonoma County fire scanner reported a five to 10 acre brush fire near the intersection of Big Geyers and Geysers Resort roads.
This wasn't the only wildfire to spark in the Bay Area Monday. A fire also broke out in Milpitas on Country Club Drive, police said.
Dozens of residents were temporarily evacuated but police sent out an alert at 9:53 p.m. to tell residents of Cervantez Court, Camarillo Court, Calaveras Ridge Drive, and Calera Creek Heights Drive that they can return home.
Everyone else in the fire area is asked to shelter in place while firefighters finish their work, police said.
A small vegetation fire broke out in Sonoma County Monday night after 9 p.m. amid unseasonably warm weather and high offshore winds.
Google MapsWinds howled across the greater Bay Area region Monday night and the National Weather Service reported gusts over 70 mph atop Mount Diablo in the East Bay and over 75 mph on Mount St. Helena in the North Bay.
The weather service issued a high wind warning for 4 p.m. Monday through 7 a.m. Tuesday for elevations above 1,000 feet in the North Bay, East Bay, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz.
The winds arrived at the tailend of a warm spell of record-breaking temperatures with many locations reaching the high-70s Monday afternoon. The weather service warned of the risk of wildfires sparking across the region and especially just south of the Bay Area in Monterey and San Benito counties.
"Relative humidity values are in the teens this evening and are not expected to recover overnight," the weather service said in its Monday report. "This unseasonably dry airmass and strong winds will combine to create critical fire weather conditions tonight and Tuesday in areas where fuels remain dry, specifically in the hills and mountains of Monterey and San Benito Counties where a Red Flag Warning is currently in effect."
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, remarked on Twitter that wildfires are unusual in the Bay Area in winter.
"Nothing short of incredible this is happening in Sonoma County in *mid January,*" Swain wrote. "Hopefully vegetation is still moist enough the meager rainfall so far this season to keep fire spread rates down tonight, but...wow. Other fires already in Bay Area tonight."
Bay City News contributed to this report.
Offshore winds have arrived. We're seeing a lot of reports of strong winds and even minor damage. These winds are expected to be strong through the night.
If you'd like to keep an eye on some observations:
Map - https://t.co/W8zlOeMbSC
Table - https://t.co/FziN7kjlMt#CAwx— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 19, 2021
