Meteorologists baffled by bizarre isolated winds that whip San Francisco Bay Area

SF Gate ^ | 9/11/17 | Amy Graff

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Meteorologists are baffled by strong wind gusts that ripped through concentrated pockets of the Bay Area early Monday morning, while other areas remained completely still. The National Weather Service reports that a gust of 54 mph roared through Pebble Beach at 2:30 a.m., while only 10 minutes away in Monterey conditions remained completely calm.

"We had a very unusual event happen overnight," says Charles Bell, a meteorologist with the NWS Bay Area. "We had isolated strong periods of winds. It's really remarkable. Usually wind storms are more widespread, while this wind occurred in concentrated pockets."

The first gusts roared through Pebble Beach and the southwesterly winds traveled north reaching up to 40 mph in Santa Cruz, up to 37 mph in Los Gatos and at the San Jose Airport.

The weather service recorded the last gust at 3:30 a.m.; it was a 35 mph wind at the Golden Gate Bridge. The winds knocked down trees and power lines. The event lasted about two hours.

The windy conditions weren't in the forecast and came as a surprise to Bay Area residents. "There was no indication of this happening today," Bell says. "We have computer models that are very high resolution that pick up a lot of features in the atmosphere and they didn't detect it. We're going to look through the data to find out what caused it." "This is a very unusual situation. And one we wish we'd given people more of a heads-up on. It definitely was not forecast." Bell says one of the office's senior scientists will be analyzing data today to determine the source of the wind. "One idea that's been kicked around is there's a storm swell to the south and potentially some energy came up from that," he says.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Something is definitely afoot in California! The Wind Gods are not happy. Looks like a Cat 2 hurricane hit Santa Barbara last week...

Here’s a 3-dimensional view of the severe t-storm that produced an 80 mph wind gust in Santa Barbara, California on Sunday September 3, 2017: 0523 PM TSTM WND GST 2 SE SANTA BARBARA 34.40N 119.69W 09/03/2017 M80 MPH SANTA BARBARA CA MESONET GUSTY WINDS WITH MICROBURST RECORDED AT SANTA BARBARA HARBOR.

The California coast is one of the least likely places in the U.S. to experience a severe t-storm with 80 mph winds. However, as this demonstrates, severe weather can occur on rare occasion just about anywhere.

Measured T-Storm Gust to 80 mph at Santa Barbara CA September 5, 2017

A microburst ripped through Santa Barbara, California, on Sunday, forcing people to scramble for safety

Puissante microrafale qui s'est abattue sur Santa Barbara en #Californie ces dernières heures. (good video, BAD English)

A #KTLA viewer sent this incredible video of a #microburst in #SantaBarbara. She says her store's roof was found on nearby train tracks

[Bob]

Pebble Beach and Monterey are about 100 or so miles south of San Francisco — I don’t think anyone considers them part of the SF Bay Area.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

You’re suggesting their models are flawed? REALLY? Come now. Not possible.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It blew up here from Monterey Bay. Hit Los Gatos, SJ, and other Silicon Valley towns.

[Mark]

I must have slept thru the big whooosh.. not a fruit dropped last night.

HOMOFOB!(/s)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

...and up to the Golden Gate and into Marin.

[mad_as_he$$]

Winner!

I lived in the Monterey Bay area for about 20 years. Pockets of wind are not all that unusual.

[laplata]

I blame ghosts.

>><<

The ghosts got tired of the smell left by the street panhandlers and homeless.

[semaj]

Heard the term “weather disturbance” being used this morning by the KSFO weatherman. There will be a major earthquake in the area next week. Just sayin’.

[Delta 21]

Dispickable! Getting bizarrely whipped in San Francisco. It used to be a nice place once last century.

[rfp1234]

Any story with “bizarre” and “whip” is routine for SF.

[EXCH54FE]

It’s just Frisco Sucking, no big deal.

[x1stcav]

If, indeed, the gusts were 54MPH in Pebble Beach and Monterey was calm, that would be very unusual considering the distances involved.

[RayChuang88]

The San Francisco Bay Area has one of the most complex climate systems on Earth. Indeed, you can go from foggy and mid 50's at Half Moon Bay to over 100 degrees in Livermore in just over 75 minutes of driving!

As such, these crazy winds can happen, especially given the topography of the Bay Area.

[SolidRedState]

WOW! The Bay Area meteorologists need to live out on the plains or in the foothills for a while.

Wind channels from 1 to a few miles wide clear up to many miles wide while either side remains calm or relatively calm are pretty common and often unpredicted.

I would think a coastal area would sometimes experience the same.

It’s called weather.

[\/\/ayne]

Read "Our Fair City" by Robert A. Heinlein.

Sentient gusts of wind are attracted to corrupt cities and help clean them up.

[Red Badger]

With ALL their ‘computer models’ they can’t tell me where a damn hurricane will be tomorrow morning, but they can sure as hell tell me what the climate will be like in 100 years................pffft!...............

[Kenny500c]

A butterfly flapped its wings in Outer Mongolia.

[AppyPappy]

Didn’t they lose a bridge to wind one time?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Now you know why all my sweaters have been purchased in Carmel!