Sun was set to dot the Bay Area on Friday, but residents are likely to see an uptick in the breeze when it begins to go down. When darkness settles into the region, the breeze is expected to become steady wind.
By midnight, those steady winds are expected to be strong enough that a wind advisory issued by the National Weather Service will go into effect and last until at least 10 a.m. Sunday.
Such elements may conjure concerns of disaster, especially since heavy winds have driven fires in Los Angeles that have killed 10 people and damaged thousands of homes. But NWS meteorologist Roger Gass said the two situations are not nearly the same, as evidenced by the fact that the weather service did not issue a red flag warning for fire danger.
“The recent rains over the North Bay have helped, and that’s where it’s going to be windiest. We’re not concerned,” Gass said. “If we continue this long stretch of dry weather, we may have to consider it later in time. Also, it’s not as windy on the Central Coast, where it’s dryer. Right now, we still have enough moisture in the atmosphere and on the ground.”
The heaviest winds are expected to be in the East Bay Hills, the Eastern Santa Clara Hills, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the North Bay Interior Mountains and expected to gust as high as 50 mph, according to the weather service.
“We’re going to be keeping this pattern through maybe even Monday,” Gass said. “Non-stop windy.”
The winds come after a couple of days of calm, sunny weather that generated record-setting heat on Thursday. Redwood City broke by one degree and the San Francisco Airport tied 63-year-old heat records with high temperatures of 75 and 71, respectively. The Oakland Museum recorded a high of 70 degrees, breaking the date’s previous high of 67 degrees set in 2015.
Gass said the return of the gusts have come because of what he called an “inside slider” that’s moving to the east of the region. The analogy is based on the diagonal trajectory the baseball pitch of the same name is supposed to take, Gass said
“We call it an ‘inside slider’ when a trough basically drops down across the Great Basin Desert and the Desert Southwest,” he said. “It doesn’t take a direct aim on the coast.”
None of those factors are going to bring rain to the area anytime soon, according to the weather service. Gass said the long-range forecast continues to point toward sunny, pleasant weather and warming temperatures when the winds die.
Originally Published:
