Power Restoration Underway After Winds Cause Widespread Outages in Bay Area

PG&E crews have restored power to about 300,000 customers who lost electricity as strong winds slammed the Bay Area over the weekend, but about 55,000 customers were still without power as of 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Through much of Sunday, gusty winds toppled trees, suspended ferry trips and brought down power lines throughout the region.

The Bay Area National Weather Service said a wind advisory remains in effect in the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills until Tuesday at 11 a.m., and lower elevations will continue to experience breezy conditions Monday morning.

Golden Gate Ferry service between San Francisco and Marin County will be delayed five to 10 minutes during commute hours Monday, due to the high winds and king tides that caused minor damage to the inner berth at the San Francisco terminal.

The wind was so strong, officials with the San Francisco Fire Department said it even contributed to the shattering of a window on the Millennium Tower in the Financial District.

"On Sunday, the strongest winds were experienced in the North Bay at higher elevations, over 3,000 feet," said meteorologist David King with the National Weather Service. "It's looking like our strongest gusts are in the upper 80 mph. Probably some isolated locations near those observation stations might have gotten something a little bit faster than that."

The East Bay was hit hardest by the wind, with the greatest concentration of outages in the East Oakland/Hayward/San Leandro area in Alameda County.

According to NWS officials, the high weekend winds were a result of a low air pressure event coming in through the Great Basin, and a high air pressure rushing in to fill the vacated space.

"If you think of it like a garden hose, you turn the water on and the water is flowing out at a certain velocity. But as soon as you put your thumb across the hose, and decrease that area where the same volume of water is trying to go through, it increases the volume and comes out a lot faster," said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with NWS. "It's the kind of setup that we've had with the winds, with the two pressure areas close together."

In a statement on Sunday night, PG&E spokesperson Karly Hernandez said crews would work through the night to restore power in the region and added that the company had activated emergency centers to help responders. But the utility was not contemplating shutting out power as a response to the high winds.

"To be clear, PG&E will not call a public safety power shutoff during this wind event as fuel and soil moisture values remain high due to winter precipitation," Hernandez said in a press release.

Earlier in the day, the National Weather Service in Reno reported a potentially record-breaking gust of wind, 209 mph, on Kirkwood Mountain south of Lake Tahoe. But King said that gust has not yet been confirmed, and there may be an issue with the measuring equipment.

Another, weaker wind event is expected later this week.

This story includes reporting from Bay City News.