I guess it is possible that the probe was also picking up on the meat temp...this happened to me once when the meat came into contact with the probe. Now, I try to keep the probe well away from any meat.
I have foiled the wood on the last 3 smokes and other than a couple of "puffs" at around the 180F mark, I have not experienced the big belch. I also ramped the temp straight to 225F without the slow warm up. I do think, though, that excessive wind can be problematic.