"We would have been sending out messages on social media. We probably would have issued a special weather statement to give people a heads up," he said. "To go from calm conditions to suddenly gusting over 50 (mph) catches people off guard and can cause problems."
While the Bay Area's winds didn't cause anything like the destruction wrought by recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean, they were powerful enough to knock down trees and power lines. PG&E says electricity was out for about 11,000 customers in San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga and Morgan Hill. Utility spokesman J.D. Guidi said that most of those who lost power had it restored hours later.
PG&E's meteorologists saw the wind conditions for the first time as they were happening, according to another company representative, Tamar Sarkissian.
The gusts were very isolated and difficult to predict ahead of time, Sarkissian said. The utility's weather officials described the windstorm as a low-probability, high-impact event, she said.
The conditions that led to the strong gusts may have appeared too small to be picked up in advance, according to Jan Null, a meteorologist with the private firm, Golden Gate Weather Services.
The strong gusts were the result of thunderstorms to the south that collapsed, Null said. Cold heavy air got pulled down and was spread horizontally, eventually channeled by the Santa Cruz mountains.
"This is on a scale much too small to be captured by the models," Null said.
Bell said his office plans to spend the next few days investigating how it missed the forecast.
During that time, more unsettled weather is in the forecast. The chance of thunderstorms in the Central Coast and Bay Area is forecast to continue this afternoon into Tuesday.
Those conditions could lead to another similar wind event in the San Jose area, according to PG&E's Sarkissian.
