A powerful cold front whipped up damaging winds for South Australia with gusts over 100km/h in parts. Yesterday was fairly calm and nice in Adelaide and much of South Australia. Overnight, however, winds really picked up. The powerful winds caught some by surprise. Many residents woke during the night and wouldn't have been exaggerating if they said "it's blowing a gale outside!". The northern suburbs of Adelaide were some of the windiest in South Australia, with gusts reaching 100km/h at Elizabeth, the strongest since the winter of 2011. Adelaide itself gusted to 82km/h, the strongest in over a year and a half. These ferocious winds brought down trees and powerlines and have now left thousands without power. One of the most distinctive parts of last nights winds was that they were very strong for a long period of time. Adelaide Airport experienced average wind speeds above 40km/h from 11:30pm until 6:30am with gusts consistently above 60km/h. Elsewhere in SA, parts of Kangaroo Island, Yorke Peninsula, the Mount Lofty Ranges and Lower South East sustained significant damage from this cold front with gusts above 90km/h in all of these areas. Even the inland towns of Yunta, Marree and Renmark experienced gusts above 70km/h overnight. Today, winds have eased significantly across SA as a high pressure ridge gradually takes hold from the west. However another front and trough is approaching and will increase winds on Friday in two distinct bursts, but not as strong as the winds overnight.