NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Pacific Gas and Electric is preparing emergency Public Safety Power Shutoffs this weekend that could affect approximately 7,382 customers across 15 Northern California counties as a Red Flag Warning remains in effect for the region. Power could be cut as early as Sunday morning and may remain off into Monday depending on conditions.

The potential shutoffs could affect customers in Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Lake, Merced, Napa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, and Yolo counties. San Joaquin County is expected to have the largest impact, with 2,967 customers potentially losing power, followed by Tehama County with 1,129 customers and Glenn County with 971 customers. Among those affected are 296 Medical Baseline customers who rely on electricity for critical medical needs.

Customers were notified Friday afternoon, roughly 48 hours ahead of any possible shutdowns. Northern California is experiencing strong winds, extremely dry air, and brittle vegetation.

San Joaquin County leaders are coordinating with PG&E and emergency agencies to help residents prepare for possible prolonged outages. "We've been working very closely with PG&E and our local partners to make sure that community members have emergency kits available to them," San Joaquin County official Kia Xiong said.

Strong winds whipped through dry brush in Central California over the weekend and into Monday, with multiple fires spreading quickly in high winds and low humidity. Smoke filled the air after a fire broke out near Highway 41 and O Street in downtown Fresno on Saturday.

"This weekend, especially in the foothill communities, we were seeing wind gusts up to 50 mph, so that is easily a wind that can spread fires," meteorologist Christine Gregory said. The conditions led PG&E to issue the year's first Public Safety Power Shutoffs with the help of artificial intelligence.

The shutoffs impacted just over 300 customers in Fresno County and around 150 customers in Merced County. As of Monday afternoon, most of those customers had their power restored.

"We're able to do extensive modeling and with that machine learning, we're able to see where the most severe fire danger is and just take those customers out while leaving the customers surrounding those danger areas energized," PG&E spokesperson Jeff Smith said. The planned outages are part of the utility's proactive efforts to identify wildfire risk, along with its new Continuous Monitoring Center in San Ramon, which adds to existing cameras, drones, and other technology used to assess risk and prevent unplanned outages.

"We're able to identify equipment that may be more vulnerable and get out and replace it before it causes a problem," Smith said.