First Alert Weather: High Winds Continue to Batter Bay Area; Fallen Branch Disrupts BART Service
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- High winds that toppled trees and made for challenging driving conditions Tuesday continued into Wednesday, with a branch that fell on the BART tracks near Daly City disrupting service.
A BART train hit a fallen tree branch on the tracks late Wednesday morning, shutting down service in both directions between the 24th Street Mission and Daly City stations, agency officials said.
BART officials initially reported the problem at about 11:50 a.m. involving a Millbrae-bound train.
Service is stopped in both directions because of equipment damage that resulted from the train hitting the branch, according to BART.
BART officials were not able to confirm if the fallen branch was wind related.
Muni buses are providing rides to customers trying to get to stations between 24th Street Mission and Daly City.
While BART service between 24th St Mission and Daly City in the SFO/Millbrae direction was restored at around noon, the transit system was still running trains on a single track between those stations, causing continuing delays.
As of about 1 p.m., the track was cleared and regular service resumed in both directions.
PG&E confirmed that the utility's crews are working on outages affecting over 2,500 customers Wednesday.
The outages were concentrated on the Peninsula with nearly 1,600 customers impacted in that area. Other parts of the Bay Area including San Francisco, the North Bay, the East Bay and the South Bay were reporting less significant outages affecting between 175-320 customers in each region.
As of about 4:45 p.m., the outage numbers had dropped to about 725 total customers in the Bay Area.
A gale warning was also issued north of the Golden Gate Bridge Wednesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard was urging recreational mariners to limit activity due to the forecast hazardous seas and strong winds Wednesday and Thursday. The Coast Guard advised boaters to check local weather conditions and consider limiting time on the water until the strong winds and heavy seas subside.
The hazardous weather began Wednesday and is expected to continue through Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a gale warning, small craft advisory, hazardous seas warning for Northern California and lake wind advisory for Lake Tahoe.
Earlier, the Bay Area office of the National Weather Service forecast that a blast of even stronger wind was expected Wednesday morning.
KPIX 5 First Alert Weather: Current Conditions, Forecasts, Alerts For Your Area
While the high winds were even stronger in the North Bay, with gusts topping 60 mph as of late Tuesday night, they could be felt across the region with much of the region experiencing winds in the 30-35 mph range with higher elevations also getting gusts over 60 mph.
Berkeley cyclist Madison Ashley said she was feeling how gusty conditions were getting.
"Good to be out in the clear blue skies, but definitely windy!" said Ashley. "I think you have to be really careful. It's fine when you're coming up the hills, but downhill especially."
However, Berkley fire said they've only had two calls for wind-related incidents in the past 40 hours.
Marin County temporarily suspended open burning within the county borders. The county is asking people to refrain from pile burning until after this high winds stop.
Cal Fire has warned people refrain from hiking during the wind advisory due to the danger that falling branches and downed trees present.
The strongest winds Tuesday were recorded at 61 mph at elevations above 2,000 feet in two locations: in the mountains south of San Jose west of State Route 17 and in northern Sonoma County west of Cloverdale.
"Another bust of stronger winds is expected by Wednesday morning with higher gusts possible, especially in the higher terrain," according to an update posted at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday by the National Weather Service.
The high winds led to injuries Tuesday afternoon when two children were hurt by a falling tree in a San Jose park, the fire department said.
The incident happened at around 1:40 p.m. at Los Paseos Park on the 100 block of Avenida Grande near the junction of U.S. Highway 101 and State Route 87.
The San Jose Fire Department said in a tweet that two juveniles were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
The winds were being caused by a "robust pressure gradient" developing between an area of increasing surface pressures over the central Great Basin and an area of low pressure along the California coast, forecasters said.
"Strong to locally damaging wind gusts and elevated fire weather concerns are the primary hazards," NWS forecasters said of the wind warning and advisory in place for the Bay Area until Thursday morning. "The stronger winds should initially reach the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range. With time these winds should expand into the Santa Cruz Mountains by this evening."
At the higher elevations, the winds will be approaching hurricane force.
The high winds were also raising wildfire concerns following a record dry January. After the heavy December rains, January ended as the tenth driest in San Francisco history.
