Strong winds gusted across the greater Bay Area during the evening and overnight hours of November 21 into the early morning of November 22. Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down by the winds, causing power outages for thousands of residents and even sparking wildfires across the North Bay.
Every event with a place to put it; 14 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MTR wrote it up.
Strong winds gusted across the greater Bay Area during the evening and overnight hours of November 21 into the early morning of November 22. Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down by the winds, causing power outages for thousands of residents and even sparking wildfires across the North Bay.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS San Francisco Bay Area, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 20, 8:00 PM PST, 1 hour 40 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
800 PM PST WED NOV 20 2013
.DISCUSSION...AS OF 8:00 PM PST WEDNESDAY...THE AREAL SHOWER COVERAGE
HAS DIMINISHED SIGNIFICANTLY THIS EVENING. KMUX RADAR SHOWS A FEW ECHO
RETURNS FROM MARIN...MONTEREY AND SAN BENITO COUNTIES BUT NOT MUCH
ELSE AT THIS HOUR. MODEL FORECASTS HAVE SHOWN SOME CONSISTENCY
WITH 500 MB HEIGHT TEMPS REACHING THE LOWER -20C RANGE OVER THE
REGION TONIGHT AND THURSDAY...A TYPICAL COLD CORE LOW FOR THE TIME
OF YEAR. LIGHTER WINDS IN THE MID-UPPER LEVELS AND COLDER TEMP
LAPSE RATES WILL LEAD TO ADDITIONAL SCATTERED OR WIDELY SCATTERED
SHOWERS TONIGHT.
THE WEATHER WILL TURN DRIER THURSDAY WITH DRY WEATHER EXPECTED TO
LAST THROUGH THE WEEKEND. THE FORECAST DOES GET TRICKIER BY LATE
THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY AS A STRONG SURFACE HIGH BUILDS OVER THE GREAT
BASIN SETTING UP A FAIRLY SIGNIFICANT DOUBLE DIGIT WMC-SFO GRADIENT
ESPECIALLY BY FRIDAY MORNING...AS MUCH AS 16-18 MB PER THE LATEST
00Z NAM MODEL. THE LOW AND FRONT THAT BROUGHT RAIN TO THE BAY AREA
AND CENTRAL COAST WILL BE LOCATED OVER SOCAL BUT THERE WILL STILL
BE AN APPRECIABLE MID LEVEL CYCLONIC PRESENCE OVERLAPPING THE
ENTIRE FORECAST AREA. SO THE NEXT ITEM TO WATCH WILL BE NE-E WIND
POTENTIAL...IN PARTICULAR OVER THE NORTH BAY MTNS...EAST BAY
HILLS/MTNS AND POSSIBLY THE SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS. AS OF THIS MOMENT
GRID FORECASTS DO HIGHLIGHT SOME GUSTIER WINDS FOR THOSE LOCATIONS
AND WILL LEAVE FORECASTS AS IS.
&&
.AVIATION...AS OF 4:15 PM PST WEDNESDAY...A COLD FRONT MOVING
ACROSS THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH SOUTH AND
EAST LEAVING A FEW SCATTERED SHOWERS AND SCATTERED MVFR CIGS OVER
AREA TERMINALS THIS EVENING. LOCAL IFR CIGS ALSO POSSIBLE OVER
SELECT TERMINALS. A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS IS CURRENTLY PASSING OVER
THE BAY AREA AND WILL MOVE SOUTHWARD THROUGH THE EVENING. CIGS ARE
EXPECTED TO LIFT FOR A SHORT TIME THEN RETURN TO AREA TERMINALS
AS A SECONDARY BAND MOVES THROUGH. MAINLY LIGHT WEST WINDS WILL
PERSIST THIS EVENING THEN EASE OVERNIGHT BECOMING LOCALLY VARIABLE.
VICINITY OF KSFO...CEILINGS ARE ANTICIPATED TO REMAIN MVFR THIS
EVENING HOWEVER A SECONDARY BAND OF CLOUDS BEHIND THE MAIN FRONT
WILL BRING LOWER CIGS TO AREA TERMINALS. EXPECTING CIGS TO STAY
MVFR BUT IFR CIGS ARE NOT COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION. CIGS ARE
ANTICIPATED TO IMPROVE AFTER 04Z TONIGHT. THE SHOWERS ACTIVITY
SHOULD HAVE COME TO AN END HOWEVER A STRAY SHOWER CAN NOT BE RULED
OUT.
KSFO BRIDGE APPROACH...SIMILAR TO KSFO.
MONTEREY BAY AREA TERMINALS...CEILINGS ARE ANTICIPATED TO REMAIN
MVFR THIS EVENING HOWEVER A SECONDARY BAND OF CLOUDS BEHIND THE
MAIN FRONT WILL BRING LOWER CIGS TO AREA TERMINALS. EXPECTING CIGS
TO STAY MVFR BUT IFR CIGS ARE NOT COMPLETELY OUT OF THE QUESTION.
CIGS ARE ANTICIPATED TO IMPROVE AFTER 04Z TONIGHT. THE SHOWERS
ACTIVITY SHOULD HAVE COME TO AN END HOWEVER A STRAY SHOWER CAN NOT
BE RULED OUT.
&&
.MTR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
.TNGT...SCA...PT ARENA TO PIGEON PT 10-60 NM
&&
PUBLIC FORECAST: CANEPA
AVIATION: CW
VISIT US AT WWW.WEATHER.GOV/SANFRANCISCO
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND YOUTUBE AT:
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/US.NATIONALWEATHERSERVICE.SANFRANCISCOBAYAREA.GOV
WWW.TWITTER.COM/NWSBAYAREA
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/NWSBAYAREAThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
14 strong wind, 1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
Wind blowing down powerlines started the silverado fire near the intersection of Silverado Trail and Soda Canyon Road north of Napa. Approximately 300 acres were consumed with mandatory evacuations.
Wind blew down a tree which blocked all northbound lanes of Interstate 238 on the edge of San Leandro and fell on a car. Several cars then struck the downed tree before the highway was closed for one hour.
Wind blew down a large tree onto a van on 4th street in Santa Rosa.
Winds knocked down power lines and produced outages to 28,600 homes across Sonoma County at the peak of the event.
Winds blew down a tree in the Rockbridge area of Oakland along Keith Avenue near the Broadway exit to highway 24. Power lines came down with the tree.
A tree was felled by strong winds onto a car driving on US Highway 101 in Petaluma. The occupant of the car was injured.
A tree branch was knocked down by strong winds in the 2000 block of Austin Street in the Fruitvale District of Oakland. The branch fell on a man on the street and killed him.
A tree fell into the 13000 block of Skyline Boulevard. A car on the street swerved to avoid the fallen tree, and crashed into another tree. The driver of the car was killed in the accident.
At the peak of the storms Thursday night and Friday morning, 42,500 customers in Berkeley and Oakland were without power due to downed trees and power lines.
Emeryville Police reported branches down from strong winds across the city. A car was damaged by a falling tree on the 4300 block of Adeline Street with no injuries.
Strong winds knocked down a very old Eucalyptus Tree by Lake Merritt. The tree was about 150 feet tall.
Several fallen trees blocked the Northbound lanes of the 3600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
Strong winds blew down a cedar tree onto power lines on Blake Street in Berkeley, between Mathews and Mabel Streets.
Strong winds caused downed live wires near Bella Vista Elementary School located on 1025 E 28th Street in East Oakland.
The Oakland Fire Department reported 148 tree related calls and 81 calls of issues including downed wires and arcing. These were due to the strong winds.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind, San Francisco Bay Shoreline | 2013-11-21 | 24 | Male | Under Tree | Direct |
| Strong Wind, San Francisco Bay Shoreline | 2013-11-21 | 29 | Male | Vehicle/Towed Trailer | Indirect |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2013Every state in 2013This day in weather historyWarnings in California, November 2013
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 486126, 486101, 486102, 486123, 486124, 486125, 486127, 486129, 486147, 486132, 486133, 486149, 486130, 486131, 486148.