The intense winds that blew through much of the Bay Area on Tuesday were considerably less powerful by Wednesday, and the region emerged from their howling relatively free from major damage.

It took only a glimpse toward Southern California to see how much worse it could have been, as fires in that region destroyed at least 1,000 structures and sent thousands of residents fleeing.

“We’ve still got some pretty good gusts blowing in the high elevations,” National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Mehle said of the Bay Area conditions. “Mount St. Helena is still at about 60 mph, and Mount Diablo is up to 47. But generally speaking, the winds are blowing about 20-30 mph and are going to get more calm. We are trending down from where we were (Tuesday).”

Indeed, the wind speed early Wednesday on Mount St. Helena was down nearly 15 mph from its peak of 84 mph on Tuesday, and Mount Diablo’s wind speed was down from its peak of 65. Winds in the Oakland Hills blew at 52 mph on Tuesday, and Mount Umunhum in the Santa Cruz Mountains reached 60 mph winds.

Amid that, the area stayed relatively intact. Downed trees near the Redwood Street exit and the Broadway Terrace exit blocked parts of state Highway 13 in both directions Wednesday morning. A power pole was left leaning near Chestnut and Clement streets in Alameda.

The winds also were responsible for power outages in the region, with areas being hit at different times as the winds varied in when and where they hit their peak gusts.

PG&E spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said that from midnight to 3 a.m. Wednesday, about 17,716 customers in the East Bay were without power. In the South Bay, the peak number of outages came from about 2-3 p.m. Tuesday and again at 10 p.m., with 6,608 customers in the dark at the peak.

In the Peninsula, about 8,085 customers had no power at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and about 5,266 customers in the North Bay were in the dark at 10:30 p.m., Sarkissian said. San Francisco hardly was affected, with 91 customers out of power at 9:20 a.m.

“Those were just the peak numbers,” Sarkissian said, adding that other customers also lost power in those areas at other times.

Sarkissian said that from midnight Tuesday through 1 p.m. Wednesday, the utility had restored service to 54,707 Bay Area customers who lost power at some point during the the winds.

All of it was relatively mild next to what occurred in Southern California, where Santa Ana winds blew in excess of 100 mph in some areas and thousands were evacuated as homes burned and a huge plume of smoke spread over the western part of Los Angeles.

Fire units from throughout the region sent resources to Southern California, where thousands of firefighters were battling the fires. Alameda County Fire, the Oakland Fire Department, the Fremont Fire Department and the Hayward Fire Department sent members as part of a strike team Wednesday.

The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District sent two engines.

On Monday, Cal Fire’s San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit sent three fire engines and a battalion chief to Southern California, while its Santa Clara unit sent two engines and a strike team.

At least 70,000 residents in the Los Angeles area had been evacuated as fires burned west of Los Angeles, north of Pasadena and in the San Fernando Valley.

In Northern California, the winds were dying down because high pressure that was situated over the Great Basin was beginning to weaken and the air flow was starting to shift, Mehle said. A wind advisory in effect for more than 24 hours expired at 10 a.m.

Also calmer were the waves along the California coast. A beach hazards statement expired at 9 p.m. Tuesday, and waves were expected to be their normal size Wednesday.

“It’s still a little energetic in the surf zone,” Mehle said. “But it’s nothing like we’ve been seeing.”

On deck for the Bay Area will be sunny weather for at least the next week, according to the weather service. Mehle said that sun will come with “bursts of offshore flow” for several days, “so it will be gusty at times.”

Of bigger concern to the weather service is the overnight cold that’s next on tap. Mehle said overnight temperatures in the southern Santa Clara Valley, East Bay interior valleys and in the North Bay interior and valleys will drop into the low 30s by the weekend or early next week.

“That’s really the next thing that we’re looking at,” Mehle said. “We’re going to move gradually into some overnights that are very, very chilly.”