Gusty Santa Ana winds ramped up Thursday causing widespread damage across San Diego County by downing trees, toppling semi-trucks and sending other items flying. The damage led to power outages and the closure of Balboa Park, where a tree landed on a woman.
A high wind warning was in effect for the county's mountains and valleys until 10 p.m. Thursday due to winds expected in the 35 to 45 mph range with some gusts reaching up to 75 mph.
The rest of the county was under a wind advisory during the same period and was experiencing damaging gusts, too. In Balboa Park, an 80 to 90-foot eucalyptus tree collapsed, falling on a woman who suffered minor injuries, according to San Diego police.
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More than two dozen trees toppled in Balboa Park, prompting the city to restrict access to the area including the Balboa Park Municipal Golf Course, Presidio Park and Chollas Lake. The onramp from state Route 163 to northbound Interstate 5 was also closed due to a downed tree. Without guests, museums in the popular park, which also houses the San Diego Zoo, were asked to close. NBC 7 was reaching out to see if the zoo remained open. The koalas seemed unaffected by the gusts.
The city said they would work on cleanup throughout the day and re-evaluate the situation on Friday to see if they could open their parks.
Nearby Mission Hills saw two mature eucalyptus trees come down. Steve Weber was walking his dog near Pioneer Park when both trees fell at the same time. He said it could have been worse because the park is often used to let elementary schools play for recess. On Thursday, the park was empty due to the wind, he said.
Another two trees came down on townhomes in Scripps Ranch. One person was trapped inside the property on Caminito Covewood but San Diego Fire-Rescue crews were able to get the person out without injuries.
Local
Power was also out for thousands of customers across the county, according to San Diego Gas & Electric, likely due to downed trees. About 1,400 were without power in San Diego's North Park area. Another thousand were without power between El Cajon and Lakeside in East County. And, several hundred lost power in the mountain communities of Pine Valley, Julian and Santa Ysabel. By 2 p.m., about 1,500 people were still affected by outages.
The destruction started Thursday morning, with gusty winds were creating problems on San Diego roadways. At least two big-rigs flipped on westbound I-8 near Crestwood, near the Golden Acre Casino, and CalTrans was detouring all high-profile vehicles in the area away from the mountain ranges. Neither driver was hurt, according to CalFire.
Winds are expected to be so intense on Thursday that the Mountain Empire Unified School District has closed all schools for the day, according to the San Diego County Office of Education.
The National Weather Service said the strongest wind gust by 1 p.m. Thursday was a whoping 93 mph gust around 9:10 a.m. on Sill Hill followed by a 86 mph gust in Buckman Springs. The inland valleys were seeing gusts upwards of 50 mph while the coast reported custs in the 35 to 50 mph range. Take a look at the full wind report here.
What's Next?
While the gusts were powerful, winds are expected to peak during the day Thursday and decrease rapidly in the evening.
Thursday is "going to be a pretty windy day," NBC 7 Meteorologist Sheena Parveen said. "It's all because of that area of high pressure" over Arizona and Utah.
That same pressure system is increasing temperatures for the region as well. Santa Ana winds flow downward from the mountains and when this happens, the airmass warms, pushing warmer temperatures to the coast and inland valleys.
On Thursday, temperatures will be around 70 at the coast and inland, the upper 50s in the mountains and low-70s in the deserts.
Don't expect the warmer weather to last for too long. By Saturday morning, an onshore weather pattern returns, breaking down that area of high pressure and bringing cooler temperatures and the chance for rain again, Parveen said.
The earliest chance for rain is Sunday evening but the storm could last for several days with rain across the county and snow in the mountains.
