National Weather Service forecasts cold, subfreezing temperatures for Wednesday and Thursday

High winds kept emergency crews running through the afternoon and evening Tuesday amid turbulent weather and a wind advisory that is expected to continue through the night, ending Wednesday afternoon.

Power outages caused by Tuesday’s winds prompted officials with the Montgomery Elementary School District in Cazadero to close the district on Wednesday.

The Sonoma County Office of Education said late Tuesday that it would be tracking school district closures and updating them on its website.

The increased winds felled trees and downed power lines across the region Tuesday.

“We’re running back-to-back calls for a whole bunch of hazardous conditions,” Karen Hancock, a public information officer for the Sonoma County Fire District, said at 4 p.m.

At least 15 power outages in Santa Rosa alone — the largest, at about noon, affecting an estimated 1,200 people around the Sonoma County YMCA on College Avenue, were reported, said Santa Rosa Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal.

In addition, felled trees hit at least four houses from Bennett Valley to Forestville, where a 75-foot fir tree crashed into and punctured an unoccupied home on Woodside Drive, Hancock said.

In Camp Meeker at about 7 p.m. a redwood fell onto and destroyed a two-story A-frame house, said Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman. A man escaped with his dog.

“They were lucky to get out without being hurt,” Baxman said.

At the YMCA, the neighborhood power outage stopped an elevator, trapping a person inside, said Lowenthal. He added that firefighters were able to eventually lower the elevator manually.

“That was the kickoff and then we have had a flurry of of wind-related incidents since then,” he said.

Just before 3 p.m. Tuesday, a large tree toppled onto a sedan and a truck on Pinercrest Drive and Marlow Road in northwest Santa Rosa, blocking the roadway, Lowenthal said. No more information was immediately available, other than no one was hurt.

Indeed, despite the crush of calls, no injuries had been reported by late afternoon.

On the western edge of Santa Rosa, on Stratford Way not far from the end of West College Avenue, the wind tore up a carport and a roof off a house, Lowenthal said.

Firefighters also contained a half-acre grass fire that broke out just after 3 p.m. along Neely Road in Guerneville, said Cal Fire spokesperson Jason Clay. Another vegetation fire that sparked at about the same time, on Bohan Dillon Road near Fort Ross Road, was also contained at a half-acre, Clay said at about 5 p.m. He said it wasn’t known if the causes were related to the stiff winds.

The wind advisory, which was issued by the National Weather Service shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, is expected to affect parts of the North Bay’s interior valleys. It is expected to expire by 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Also, on the near horizon are temperatures that will feel a little higher than 20 degrees Tuesday night into Wednesday morning in some portions of the North Bay, according to the National Weather Service.

Some weather watchers were already warning motorists headed north along Highway 101 Tuesday afternoon that Caltrans had started posting of potential snowfall alerts.

These lower temperatures are the result of a cold front which moved into the region Tuesday afternoon, bringing much colder conditions, as well as wind gusts around 45 to 55 mph, said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Monterey office.

The weather service issued a frost advisory for midnight to 9 a.m. Wednesday for the North Bay interior valleys. A freeze watch was also issued for the same areas from midnight to 9 a.m. Thursday.

Temperatures Wednesday morning will range from around the low- to mid-30s for most of Sonoma County, with some higher elevations, such as the coastal mountains, slightly higher in the upper 30s to lower 40s, Murdock said.

However, the up to 55 mph wind gusts, which began Tuesday afternoon and are expected to continue until about 1 p.m. Wednesday, will make it feel about 10 degrees cooler, Murdock said.

Some of the higher wind gusts Tuesday were about 57 mph just southwest of Healdsburg and 55 mph at Salmon Creek Ranch, just east of Bodega Bay.

Murdock said many North Bay residents should consider staying inside due to the potential hazards.

“If you don’t need to be out in these conditions, we recommend you don’t,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @madi.smals.