S.F. gets hurricane force winds.

[sprites]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/02/28/california.storm.ap/index.html

[Aslkahuna]

Angel Island is just inland from the GG Bridge so they probably had to close the Bridge to keep cars from being blown off of it.

Steve

[Extremeweatherguy]

according to that article...the top gust at S.F. airport was 71mph...so in the city they only saw TS force winds. On angle Island, however, the 90-100mph gusts would have felt like a Cat. 1 hurricane. Were they expecting this before the event?

Edit:

Looking at some of the reports around the area...this seems to have been a brief (less than 1.5 hours) and localized event. Just a few miles north or a few miles inland, gusts only reached 25-40mph. Was this a severe thunderstorm that caused this burst of wind?

[Aslkahuna]

No, I doubt that it was Tstm activity. In order to explain why one needs to know the topography of the Bay Area. Angel Island as I noted above is downwind from the Golden Gate especially with SW flow. The Gate is a narrow gap between the higher terrain on the Marin County side and the terrain on the SF Peninsula side and the winds funnel through that gap. They can even howl in the Summer through the Gate. The airport is just east of the hills on the Peninsula south of the City (BTW the airport is in San Mateo County and not San Francisco) so downsloping is likely. The front did pack a punch when it came through as San Jose recorded 50 mph gusts when the front came through. BTW Angel Island is not part of San Francisco either but is on the Marin side of the Bay.

Steve