A Christmas Eve storm whose winds were stronger than expected knocked out power to as many as 14,000 homes and businesses, downed trees, delayed scores of airline flights and made driving a misty mess across San Diego County. And in City Heights, a man was killed by a falling tree. The system isn’ t quite done marking people miserable. Scattered showers — and possibly raucous thunderstorms — will follow Thursday night and early Friday. It’ll then turn dry. But forecasters say a new storm might hit sometime around New Year’s Eve. The weather seemed more weird than threatening early Wednesday. The sun was out in some places, and the temperature quickly rose to 76 in San Diego, 10 degrees above average. The warmth was tied to the moisture the storm was pulling north from the subtropics. Heavy rain arrived about 1 p.m. Two hours later, the totals were modest. San Diego International Airport recorded only 0.20 inches. Carlsbad had about twice as much. Palomar Observatory was the outlier, getting 1.82 inches from rain that began earlier in the day. The real story was the powerful winds from the south, which made hardy trees bend and break and whipped up white caps in San Diego Bay. The National Weather Service estimated that the winds would top out at 40 mph to 45 mph. But they gusted to 61 mph at Cuyamaca Peak in East County, 59 mph at Imperial Beach and 52 mph in San Marcos. And they were long-lasting. Two sailboats dragged anchor in Glorietta Bay by the Coronado Golf Course. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Heavy weather from a Pineapple Express storm hit Coronado before noon Wednesday, downing branches, causing major whitecaps to form in San Diego Bay and two sailboats to drag anchor in Glorietta Bay. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Whitecaps formed in windy weather and stressed sailboats at anchor in this view looking toward the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge with the Naked Warrior U.S. Navy SEALs statue in the foreground. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) The U.S. flag danced in the wind in Coronado at midday. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) A tree trimmer prepares to cut branches on a tree at the corner of Marlborough Avenue and Wightman Street in City Heights where earlier branches fell and killed a man Wednesday. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Crews clear debris after branches from tree at the corner of Marlborough Avenue and Wightman Street in City Heights fell and killed a man during high winds Wednesday. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Jayson Carpenter, right, his wife Shane, and next door neighbor Kristen McBride, center, embrace after strong winds hitting San Diego County knocked over a large Torrey pine tree in front of the home they rent on Oxford Avenue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea on Wednesday. (Hayne Palmour IV / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)Show Caption1 of 7Two sailboats dragged anchor in Glorietta Bay by the Coronado Golf Course. (John Gastaldo / For The San Diego Union-Tribune) Expand They knocked out electricity to as many as 14,000 San Diego Gas Electric customers, mostly in and around San Diego, creating a whack-a-mole scenario for technicians fixing circuits. Festive light shows suddenly went dark. “(The storm) isn’t strong enough to knock over power lines … but you always run the risk of cars running into transformers and power poles, possibly bringing down lines,” SDGE spokesperson Alex Welling said. “And then these winds can pick up everything from palm fronds to tarps to patio furniture and throw them into power lines.” The winds also delayed 244 flights at San Diego International Airport, which was expected to handle 75,000 to 80,000 passengers. The airport is sometimes shielded from intense winds by Point Loma. That wasn’t the case Wednesday when the wind gusted to 47 mph. The winds forced a change in direction for arriving and departing flights, airport spokesperson Nicole Hall said. The FAA made the determination to have all flights switch directions, meaning that instead of taking off and arriving from the west, they did so from the east. In order to make the transition, operations need to stop temporarily, which causes delays, Hall said. The storm also brought tragedy to City Heights, where part of a tree fell on a man, killing him. The incident occurred around 10:55 a.m. on the corner of Marlborough Avenue and Wightman Street, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue Capt. Jason Shanley and San Diego police Sgt. David Yu. Firefighters who arrived on scene found the man trapped under the large section of tree. The fire crews were told that family members had attempted to free the victim but were unable to do so. Another portion of the tree fell on a nearby home, but did not cause any injuries. Jayson Carpenter, a Cardiff resident who has been renting a home on Oxford Street near Oak Street for the last five years, said he, his wife, Shane, and their two dogs were all at the house Wednesday afternoon when they noticed the 60- to 80-foot Torrey pine at the edge of their deck beginning to lean in the weather. Within a few minutes, the tree had fallen, and its main trunk narrowly missed the Carpenter’s home by about 8 feet, Jayson said. Carpenter said some of the limbs branching out from the main trunk did cause some damage to the home’s roof, and that the tree’s root ball was completely pulled out of the ground — lifting the family’s front deck over a dozen feet in the air. The tree also fell on a neighbor’s car and damaged another deck next door, but no injuries were reported. “This was the only way it could’ve fallen without it hunting anyone,” he said. “It’s kind of a Christmas miracle.” Lemon Grove parks were all closed Wednesday afternoon due to high winds after a tree fell at Lemon Grove Park, according to Izzy Murguia, the city’s public works director. The closure is expected to last through Christmas and will be reassessed on Dec. 26. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he’s declared a state of emergency in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Shasta counties “to activate emergency authorities and preposition resources to keep our communities safe.” Staff writers Alex Riggins and Hannah Elsmore contributed to this report. ...read more read less