Overnight cooling, reduced winds help fire fight

A wildland fire atop The Geysers had spread to 400 acres by Friday morning, Cal Fire officials said.

But fire crews battling the day-old blaze had it 50 percent contained, thanks in part to cool overnight temperatures and diminishing winds Friday morning, officials said.

“They have stopped the forward movement,” a spokeswoman for Cal Fire, or the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said Friday morning.

Additional strike teams were arriving Friday to join he ranks fighting the fire, but it wasn’t clear when the blaze would be contained, Cal Fire Capt. Redhawk Palleson said.

Dry, scorching weather and gusty winds fanned five wildland fires around the region Thursday, suggesting autumn was upon us even though summer had yet to begin.

Winds whipped up after midnight Thursday, gusting to 50 mph across The Geysers and other mountainous areas of Sonoma County, the National Weather Service said.

But calmer, cooler conditions prevailed later Friday morning.

Crews had full containment on the 50-acre Tar Fire on St. Helena Road and a 2-acre fire on Salmon Creek Road, Neal said.

Early morning temperatures were almost 20 degrees cooler Friday than on Thursday — 59 degrees at the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, compared with 77 degrees 24 hours earlier, National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Anderson said.

But record high temperatures were expected yet again Friday, though with less of the offshore wind that whipped up fires Thursday, he said.

Santa Rosa’s temperature was expected to peak at 99 degrees Friday, compared with a record for May 16 of 96, set in 1970, Anderson said.

The mercury should drop to about 90 degrees Saturday, falling to 85 degrees on Sunday and 80 on Monday, he said.

“It looks like it will get a little bit better here on Sunday and Monday,” he said. “We’ll get that cool marine air, higher humidities back.”