• This crazy holiday heat wave

• A review of the wildfires we’ve seen so far this season, like the one that broke out north of Calistoga yesterday

• In response to all of the above, a growing number of canceled fireworks shows this Fourth of July

• Another firework-related debacle up in the small town of Cloverdale

• And other odds and ends...

Oh, also — I’m trying out a slightly different format for the newsletter today, and would love your feedback. If you have thoughts, you can send them to me at swilson@weeklys.com.

And if you're looking for the event listings that used to run at the end of this newsletter: FYI, we’re sending those out in a separate email on Tuesdays now. You can subscribe here. (Just make sure the “North Bay Events” box is checked.)

Finally, for all my fellow Healdsburg heads: Did you know I also write another newsletter just about Healdsburg? Better believe it. Sign up here to get all the best community goss.

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WEATHER & WILDFIRE

So we’re now a couple of days into this insane, record-setting Fourth of July heat wave to end all heat waves. In response, weather officials and local government leaders have been issuing a dizzying array of alerts and warnings for us to heed over the coming week. These are the main ones:

• “Excessive heat warning” issued by the National Weather Service for our whole region, lasting through next Tuesday night

• “Heat advisory” for health danger issued by the Sonoma County Health Department, lasting through this Friday night

• “Red flag warning” for fire danger issued by the National Weather Service, lasting through Friday morning for large swaths of Sonoma and Napa counties

In a nutshell: It will continue to be brutally, dangerously, even life-threateningly hot for the next week, with highs in triple digits — pushing 110 degrees in some places — and not much relief overnight, as low temps linger in the 60s. “Drink plenty of fluids, stay cool, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” the National Weather Service says. Here are links to lists of the public “cooling centers” open right in Sonoma and Napa counties, including libraries, schools, community centers, etc. 💦

Of course, all of this crazy heat and low humidity means heightened wildfire risk as well, especially when the wind gets to blowing. In the words of our local Cal Fire unit: “The aligning weather and fuel conditions has the potential to create extreme wildfire behavior this week, and that significance cannot be understated. Please avoid any activities that could ignite a wildfire.” This includes using power tools in your yard — and, of course, setting off rogue Fourth of July fireworks, you hooligans. 💥

PG&E officials also warned everyone earlier this week that they might have to start shutting off power in some areas, to lessen fire risk — and indeed, residents in Petaluma, Cloverdale, Calistoga and other communities started reporting power outages yesterday and today. Some appear to be planned; some not. You can check the PG&E website for updates. 🔌

Yesterday was the hottest July 2 in Santa Rosa history. (Image: National Weather Service via X)

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

1) It’s been a big month for wildfire in the wine country

It started in early June, when little grass fires started popping up in Sonoma and Napa counties — along with the not-so-little, 60-acre Crystal Fire near St. Helena. At that time, weather and fire officials were still predicting a mild-to-medium 2024 fire season.

But it soon became clear that all the grass and brush that had fattened up during the extra-wet winter were drying out fast, and combusting big. “The grass this year is just burning really well,” Chief Marshall Turbeville of the Northern Sonoma County Fire Protection District told me earlier this month. (And it’s not even “as dry as it’s going to be in July and August” yet.)

Then came two whoppers within Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, forebodingly early in the season: The 1,200-acre Point Fire in the Dry Creek Valley outside Healdsburg on June 16 (near where I live), and the 19,200-acre Sites Fire in Colusa County, northeast of Clear Lake, on June 17.

Within just a few days, thanks in large part to Point and Sites, more acres had burned within our local Cal Fire division — covering Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Colusa, Solano and Yolo counties — than in the previous three summers combined, unit leaders said.

Father’s Day visitors to Trattore Farms & Winery on Dry Creek Road, including SMART train general manager Eddy Cumins, witnessed the Point Fire consume a hill across the valley. (Photo: Eddy Cumins)

Hundreds of rural Healdsburg residents had to evacuate, along with hundreds more staff and visitors at world-famous wineries. But thanks to strong, smart firefighting and some luck with the wind, the Point Fire ended up being much less destructive than we all feared. In the end, three houses and seven other structures burned down, according to Cal Fire’s incident map — plus one other home a mile-and-a-half from the burn zone, outside the evacuation line, which may have caught a high-flying ember. (The people who lived there are OK, by some miracle; crazy story.)

One winery boss, from Raymond Burr Vineyards, said in an interview with the Press Democrat: “Cal Fire was so impressive. They came here with an army. They came here with crew after crew.”

In the two weeks since then, it’s been a game of grass-fire whack-a-mole for Cal Fire and the smaller local fire agencies that dot the region.

There was the (confusingly named) 5-acre Wild Fire near Angwin in east Napa County, and the 6-acre Preston Fire near Cloverdale in northern Sonoma County — both nipped in the bud by firefighters. Small fires have been breaking out in more urban areas, too — like a barn fire at the Petaluma fairgrounds, and a compost fire at the beleaguered Upper Valley Disposal and Recycling center in St. Helena.

And, just this week, another potential catastrophe came in the form of the fast-growing Toll Fire just north of Calistoga. Rural residents evacuated after it broke out yesterday morning, preparing for the worst — but again, it looks like Cal Fire already managed to stop forward progress and lock it down between 40 and 50 acres.

Some retardant for the Toll Fire. (Image: Cal Fire via X)

“Thanks to a strong initial attack from both air and ground resources, we were able to keep this fire contained with no reported property damage,” Cal Fire officials tweeted last night.

Local photojournalist Kent Porter, always at the scene, took some wild pics yesterday of firefighting planes dropping neon-pink fire retardant on country homes along a ridge line threatened by the Toll Fire, in the Palisades area of Mount St. Helena. (The same substance that may have destroyed a bunch of wine grapes at Lago di Merlo Vineyards in the Point Fire, according to the PD.)

Anyway, it seems like there are two trends we’re seeing so far this season. 1) The combo of a super-wet winter and a super-hot, super-windy early summer is making for explosive fire conditions. 2) Local firefighters are more equipped than ever to handle these outbreaks, with loads more funding and personnel and knowledge and tech than 5 or 10 years ago.

After the Point Fire, one of our Sonoma County supervisors, Lynda Hopkins, went up in a helicopter and posted some pretty epic aerial footage from her trip. Lynda admired the “ridgetop fuel breaks” that helped halt the forward progress of the fire, and raved about the high-tech aircraft and cameras used in the fight: “We watched in real time as a CAL FIRE helicopter loaded water and completely extinguished a smoldering, smoking hot spot within the fire perimeter,” she wrote. “Henry-1’s infrared camera was able to both identify the hot spot and provide confirmation it was extinguished.”

The new burn scar at Lake Sonoma. (Photo: Lynda Hopkins via Facebook)

At the same time, the art of battling nature is still a total crapshoot sometimes, and when the wind is blowing hard enough, many of these tactics and gadgets go out the window. Especially when multiple fires are burning at once and firefighting resources get stretched thin. So, as Cal Fire keeps saying — pack your “go bag,” “know your zone” and all that jazz!

Firefighters also corralled a nearly 500-acre wildfire called the Denverton Fire down near the Travis Air Force Base in Solano County yesterday, FYI.

And another small grass fire the day before in Santa Rosa, near a local elementary school, may have been caused by illegal fireworks, according to the Press Democrat.

From the story: “A Santa Rosa man is suspected of lighting a firework that caused a vegetation fire near a local elementary school Monday afternoon, police said Tuesday. Salvador Castillo Lopez, 20, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor unlawfully causing a fire, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department. The fire was reported just before 2:30 p.m. in the 2000 block of Moraga Drive in southeast Santa Rosa. The scene is in a field bordered by Kawana Springs Elementary School, North Bay Children’s Center and homes on Tokay Street. Firefighters ‘quickly extinguished a fire that burned a 2,500-square-foot area of mowed grass,’ police said. Investigators believe the suspect ignited a firework inside PVC pipe and it launched in an opposite direction then was intended.”

2) At least two towns are canceling their Fourth of July fireworks shows

As smoke from the Toll Fire wafted across the wine country yesterday afternoon — and the National Weather Service kept expanding the coverage area for its “red flag warning” — some local government officials began to reconsider their Fourth of July plans.

So far, tomorrow’s fireworks shows in St. Helena and Yountville have been canceled. And other towns are watching conditions closely.

Here where I live in Healdsburg, some residents are pushing city officials to cancel the local fireworks show, even though we’re right outside the red-flag zone. Our city manager told me last night: “We will only move forward with fireworks if we are confident that we can do so safely. Our executive team is actively reviewing the situation and the guidance of the police and fire chiefs is a key part of that.”

The cities of Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Sonoma and Cloverdale all have fireworks shows planned tomorrow as well, with no word yet of any cancelations. There are also Third of July fireworks planned tonight in Windsor and Sebastopol. (Could be others, too — those are just the ones I know about.)

An old Healdsburg show. (Photo: Christian Kallen/Healdsburg Tribune)

The sale of fireworks — which, I learned this year, is somehow still legal in the rough-and-tumble northern Sonoma County community of Cloverdale — was also paused by Cloverdale city leaders yesterday, along with local rules that allow people to set off any fireworks they buy there.

(To be clear, though, the official fireworks show at Cloverdale High School tomorrow night is still a go, as of Wednesday morning.)

The Press Democrat reports: “Sales and use of legal fireworks are being suspended in Cloverdale due to unsafe weather conditions that are raising concerns of wildfires, city officials announced Tuesday. The sudden announcement, which comes just two days before Independence Day, is a major about-face for the lone place in Sonoma County where sales and use of so-called ‘safe and sane’ fireworks are allowed. Those sales had just begun on Monday.”

Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands wrote a long, heartfelt post on Facebook about the city’s decision. He called it “one of the hardest decisions I/we have had to make in a very long time.”

The mayor continued: “I love fireworks, I love our freedoms, and I love supporting the rights and choices of our voters. However, the National Weather Service is showing three major weather issues happening at once on July 4th. Extreme hot weather, low humidity, and most importantly, high wind gusts of 30+mph. Because of all three, we have made the decision to suspend the sale and use of Safe and Sane fireworks for this holiday. Only for this holiday! The risk is too high. This decision had nothing to do with the complaints on social media, the Chicken Littles that send me emails telling me I am going to destroy Cloverdale, or anything other than informed leadership that has to make the hard choices at times. ... I am looking forward to finding a safe time to use the fireworks that were purchased, looking for more opportunities to sell and use fireworks, like New Years, and cannot wait to have them back next year for Independence Day 2025!”

(Image: Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce via Facebook)

St. Helena city leaders, for their part, say they’ll still try to set off their Fourth of July fireworks at a “later date in the year when conditions are more favorable.” (They’re also moving the other holiday events planned for tomorrow, like a community festival, to “areas at Crane Park that provide additional shade and [offer] convenient ways to refill water bottles.”)

So no local fireworks tonight for the people of the Napa Valley.

However! The City of Napa, which is having a bit of an I-told-you-so moment right now, is trying out something new in place of Fourth of July fireworks this year: a flying drone show.

City officials decided a few months ago to switch to this modern, non-flammable option — for precisely the same reason we’re now all worried about the traditional route. (Plus the toll it takes on war veterans and pets.)

From the City of Napa website: “Sky Elements is providing the largest Northern California display (400 drones) at Pearl and West Street parking lot. Recommended viewing areas include Oxbow Commons, 1st and 3rd Street Bridge sidewalks, Veteran's Memorial Park, China Point and the Riverfront Promenade. Music for the Drone Show will be available at Oxbow Commons or via your smart phone by going to the following YouTube video (July 4th Drone Show Music) or look for the signs with QR code in the recommended viewing areas.”

Pretty fancy, right? There are also a bunch more Fourth of July events going on in the wine country this week and weekend that don’t involve fire, of course. Some of them even involve bodies of water; hallelujah. Here’s an event roundup I sent out yesterday with all the funnest-looking stuff on the schedule.

PICS OF THE DAY

Remember that art project I told you about at the beginning of the year, where a lady from Cloverdale decided to make a “temperature blanket” representing the weather patterns of 2024? Well, we just got an early-summer update from the artist, Luca Bonyeau. She posted in her Facebook community group on July 1: “It’s that time of the month again! I am making a blanket where I crochet one row every day in the color corresponding with the high temperature for that day, June is done and we are officially halfway done [with] 2024 and halfway done with the blanket! This heat wave is brutal but these warm colors have been fun to work with. After this week every color in the pallet will have been used.” Looks like we might even end up with multiple rows of that deep-purple “wine” color by the end of this, so help us God... (Photos courtesy of Luca Bonyeau)

That’s all for today. Too hot to write another word! Stay safe and smart and sane out there, OK everybody? ❤️ 🩵 🤍

— Simone Wilson

About me: I was born and raised in Healdsburg, CA, and have since worked as a local journalist for publications in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York City and the Middle East. I'm now a senior product manager and staff writer for the Weeklys newspaper group, including the Healdsburg Tribune and the North Bay Bohemian.

Have any feedback, questions, suggestions or corrections? Or a tip about something happening around here? Hit me up at swilson@weeklys.com.