Homes were damaged, power lines were pulled down and streets closed when winds which topped 50 mph knocked down trees Saturday morning across North Idaho.

The winds died down by Saturday afternoon, as a cold front passed through the region, but before that, warm temperatures and high winds welcomed North Idaho into February, local climatologist Cliff Harris reported.

Harris recorded a 54 mph wind gust at 5:30 a.m. at his home in western Coeur d’Alene, and a high temperature of 54 degrees on Saturday morning broke the previous record of 53 degrees set on Feb. 1, 1971.

Colder and calmer weather is expected today and early this week, with the next chance of precipitation coming Tuesday, likely as snow, Harris said.

“It’s been a strange pattern this winter,” he added. “More than 60 percent of this season’s snow fell in a seven-day period in January.”

During the strong winds on Friday night and Saturday morning, the Lucky Pines mobile home park in Post Falls was hit hard, and several residents had to be evacuated when several Ponderosa pine trees fell onto homes. No injuries were reported.

The storm downed two trees on Best Avenue in Coeur d’Alene about 7 a.m., which in turn took down power lines. Crews were on site late Saturday making repairs and cleaning up, and a three-block section of Best was closed most of the day.

Nearly 1,300 Avista customers in Kootenai County were still without power by Saturday evening.

High winds caused trees to fall into power lines and across roads according to Kootenai Electric Cooperative, which had crews working throughout the day to restore power outages.