San Diego appears headed for the third driest start to the rainy season in at least 152 years, a streak that would further elevate the risk of wildfires in an already parched county, the National Weather Service says.
The city has recorded only 0.13 inches of precipitation since the season began on Oct. 1. If things remain unchanged through Dec. 31, the three-month period will officially be off to an unusually dry start.
The only years that have been drier from October through December were 1929, when San Diego received a trace of rain, and 2017, when it reached 0.09 inches.
The weather service says it is expecting no rain through Christmas Eve, and things could stay dry through New Year’s Eve.
The landscape is likely to get much drier. Weak to moderate Santa Ana winds will begin blowing in the mountains and foothills on Tuesday and could last into Thursday, forecasters said.
They won’t be nearly as strong as the Santa Anas that flipped over big rigs on Interstate 8 east of Alpine last week. But the winds could gust as high as 45 mph.
San Diego Gas & Electric said Monday it will not be notifying any customers of potential temporary power shutoffs to help reduce the chance of power lines sparking a fire.
Last week, the utility notified more than 117,000 customers that they faced possible outages. SDG&E ended up turning off power to more than 50,000 households.
