[californiadisasters] Bay Area Pummeled By High Winds

Record winds in SF close Great Highway

Will Kane | San Francisco Chronicle

Updated 7:56 am, Monday, April 8, 2013

(04-08) 07:55 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Punishing winds howled across the Bay Area for more than three hours Monday morning, upending lawn furniture, toppling trash bins, downing power lines and tearing off tree limbs.

Record-setting gusts of 75 mph were recorded off Ocean Beach in San Francisco, said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.

"It was the highest wind ever recorded there," Anderson said. "One of our weather spotters called in (from Ocean Beach) and said, 'It is really windy and my front window just got blown out.' "

A giant eucalyptus tree toppled over on 48th Avenue near Geary Boulevard, and the Great Highway was closed because of hazardous conditions, city officials said.

More than 8,000 people were without power on the Peninsula, while hundreds more were in the dark in the North and East Bay, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. officials said. A high-wind advisory was issued for Bay Area bridges.

The wind was the result of a low-pressure system that shot south from Canada, Anderson said. As the low hovered over the eastern Sierra, it drew in air from a high-pressure system over the Pacific.

"The low just dove right now into the Great Basin," Anderson said. "Usually there is a gradual transition of a day or two, but for whatever reason it wanted to build in real quick."

The breezy conditions are expected to stick around all day Monday. When the winds finally die down, the weather will turn toasty, Anderson said.

"It'll be downright warm by Wednesday," Anderson said. "We're talking 72 degrees in the city, mid-80s in the East Bay and around 80 in the South Bay."

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Record-winds-in-SF-close-Great-Highway-4417568.php

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