- [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] California's largest utility's preemptive measures come as virtually a rain-less fall has left brush dangerously dry amid forecasts for low humidity and high winds
- Gusts of 55 mph are expected which which might fling tree branches or other debris into power lines, causing sparks that could set catastrophic fires
- One reporting station in Napa County reporting has not seen a drop of rain since September, the first time that's happened since 1905
- The northern Sierra Nevada has seen a fraction of an inch of rain in the past two months instead of the usual 5 inches
- 'This lack of rain is keeping the threat of fire very real, this late in the season, in many areas', says Scott Strenfel, PG&E's principal meteorologist
- The planned shutoff would be the latest in a series of massive outages by PG&E, including one last month that affected nearly 2.5 million people.
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