Summer officially arrived Friday, but California decided to skip the soft launch. Instead, red flag warnings, howling winds and even patchy frost are all in play across the state this weekend, a jarring mix of hazards that reflects the sharp weather contrasts in the state.
In the Bay Area, gusty winds peaked early Saturday morning as a tight pressure gradient squeezed between a sprawling high pressure over the Pacific and abnormally strong low pressure over the Pacific Northwest. Winds will slowly ease through the weekend, but the atmosphere will remain in a perturbed state, resulting in a number of different hazard threats depending on your location.
The most pressing concern is fire danger. A red flag warning is in effect from Saturday morning through Sunday morning in the Central Valley, from Red Bluff to Bakersfield, where northerly winds will funnel down the I-5 corridor and dry out the air mass. Gusts could top 35 mph at times, with relative humidity levels in the teens and 20s, escalating the potential for fast-moving grass fires to develop…