Winds Topple Power Lines, Trees and the Temperature : Weather: Blustery cold front moves through area, dropping the mercury in Anaheim from 81 degrees to 61 in a few hours.

Gusty winds whipped through Orange County on Thursday, toppling trees and power lines, as temperatures plunged 20 degrees in five hours.

As a cold front shoved its way through the area during the afternoon, the mercury dropped from a summery 81 degrees in Anaheim--the warmest spot in California--to a chilly 61 degrees between 1 and 6 p.m. And temperatures were expected to continue to drop to the 40s Thursday night in some areas of the county.

Today is expected to be even colder but calmer, according to WeatherData, a service that provides forecasts to The Times.

“The cold front passed through earlier today and brought in some drier, cooler air,” said WeatherData’s Steve Burbach. “This is not necessarily rare for this time of year. . . . It can change quickly. But it has cooled off quite a bit.”

In Santa Ana, the winds downed wires which caused a two-hour power outage to 60 customers in the area bounded by Main Street, Broadway, Santa Clara Avenue and 20th Street, Southern California Edison spokesman Jeff Perlman said. The outage happened at 4:45 p.m. and power was restored at 7 p.m., he said.

The wind also bent a palm tree and entangled its branches in utility wires, which caused a signal light to short-circuit, police and utility officials said. Police had to direct traffic at Buffalo Avenue and Main Street for about an hour.

In Costa Mesa, 25 customers were without power for several hours when a tree branch, severed by winds gusting more than 40 m.p.h., and toppled a power line near the intersection of Santa Isabel and Santa Ana streets.

Despite the cold, National Guard armories in Santa Ana and Fullerton were scheduled to remain closed Thursday night. Gov. Pete Wilson has said he will open the armories to homeless people when the weather dictates between mid-November and February.

Burbach said today’s highs in Orange County should range in the upper 50s to the low 60s, falling into the mid-40s tonight.

The normal temperature for this date would range from the mid-70s during the day to the low 50s at night, Burbach said.

The winds also caused problems elsewhere in Southern California. In the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, gusts of up to 35 m.p.h. knocked out power for more than 2,000 households.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Water and Power said that 2,400 customers in Encino, South Los Angeles and Westwood were without electricity for an average of 95 minutes.

Meanwhile, gusts of up to 70 m.p.h. blew through desert areas, knocking out power for a time to 20,000 customers in communities along the Kern-San Bernardino county line in the Mojave Desert and prompting travel advisories to motorists bound for Las Vegas.

In the Mojave Desert communities of Inyokern, Ridgecrest, Red Mountain and Randsburg, high winds and a rain-and-lightning front caused an outage around 2 p.m., Edison Co. spokesman Steve Hanson said. Power was restored to most customers by 3:45 p.m.

Times staff writer George Ramos contributed to this story.