The Bay Area awoke Wednesday morning relatively free from major damage following high winds that were not blowing as heavily as they did in the previous 24 hours.
It took only a glimpse toward Southern California to see how much worse it may have been.
“We’ve still got some pretty good gusts blowing in the high elevations,” National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mehle said early Wednesday. “Mount St. Helena is still at about 60 mph, and Mount Diablo is up to 47. But generally speaking, the winds are blowing about 20-30 mph and are going to get more calm. We are trending down from where we were (Tuesday).”
Indeed, the wind speed on Mount St. Helena was down nearly 15 mph from its peak of 84 mph on Tuesday, and Mount Diablo’s wind speed was down from it’s peak of 65. Winds in the Oakland Hills blew at 52 mph, and Mt Umunhum in the Santa Cruz Mountains reached 60 mph winds.
Amid that, the area stayed relatively free from damage. Downed trees near the Redwood Street exit and the Broadway Terrace exit blocked parts of state Highway 13 in both directions. A power pole was left leaning near Chestnut and Clement streets in Alameda.
The winds also were responsible for power outages in the area, though the exact figures were not available immediately from PG&E on Tuesday morning.
All of it was relatively mild next to what occurred in Southern California, where Santa Ana winds blew in excess of 100 mph in some areas and thousands were evacuated.
In Northern California, the winds were dying down because high pressure that was situated over the Great Basin Desert was beginning to weaken and the air flow was starting to shift, Mehle said. The change was significant enough that the weather service said it still anticipated letting a high wind advisory expire at 10 a.m.
Also calmer were the waves along the California coast. A beach hazards statement expired at 9 p.m. Tuesday, and waves were expected to be their normal size.
“It’s still a little energetic in the surf zone,” Mehle said. “But it’s nothing like we’ve been seeing.”
Next for the Bay Area will be sunny weather for at least the next week, according to the weather service. Mehle said that sun will come with “bursts of offshore flow” for several days, “so it will be gusty at times.”
Of bigger concern to the weather service is the overnight cold that’s next on tap. Mehle said overnight temperatures in the southern Santa Clara Valley, East Bay interior valleys and in the North Bay interior and valleys will drop into the low 30s by the weekend or early next week.
“That’s really the next thing that we’re looking at,” Mehle said. “We’re going to move gradually into some overnights that are very, very chilly.”
