Summer Storm Triggers Lightning, Fires, Outages

A low pressure system roared onshore early Saturday, awakening Bay Area residents to the sound of thunder, triggering numerous power outages and igniting brush fires.

The National Weather Service reported that there had been at least 419 lightning strikes in the Bay Area between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

Winds gusts of 29 mph had been recorded at Travis Air Force Base and 22 mph at the Altamont Pass. However, only slight showers were associated with the front with .05 or less being reported at most Bay Area locations overnight.

The greatest threat posed by the storm front was dry lightning.

Cal Fire crews battled between 15 and 20 lightning fires in portions of Alameda and Santa Clara counties early Saturday, a dispatcher said.

The blazes all appeared to be the result of lightning, he said, and were spread out through the central area of the Diablo Mountain Range between Interstate Highway 580 and state Highway 152.

Dry lightning also ignited fires in Sonoma County, causing about half a dozen grass fires.

“There's a number of strikes in the area,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Mike Mickelson said Saturday. “We're expecting to be busy this morning and this afternoon.”

Meanwhile, firefighters in the Livermore-Tracy area battled a lightning-sparked fire which burned more hillsides in the Corral Hollow area.

Cal Fire's Morgan Hill Command Center was busy all morning, fielding over a hundred calls.

“We had about 100 strikes occur in the Santa Clara unit which makes up five counties--Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Western Stanislaus and Western San Joaquin,” said Cal Fire Battery Chief Jim Crawford.

Crawford said at least 20 lightning fires were sparked in that region Saturday, most between five and ten acres and in very rural and inaccessible areas. Cal Fire had to call in more ground crews than expected.

“We did order additional resources in advance of this incident, but they were quickly gobbled up for use on the incidents,” said Crawford.

John Monteverdi, Professor Of Meteorology at San Francisco State University said the last time the Bay Area saw this type of storm was around 2001.

“It's infrequent but not unusual,” he said. “Basically, we expect this kind of pattern to occur three or four times in a decade.”

Monteverdi said the storm which brought these unique cloud formations was made up of the remnants of what was once Hurricane Linda, and that the fact the tropical storm made it so far north is consistent with the El Nino pattern.

Fire crews continue to monitor the still-burning fires Saturday night, and will keep an eye on those areas by plane throughout the week to make sure they catch any others that may pop up.