The skies over the Bay Area in California were cleared early Sunday as severe storms brought numerous lightning strikes that eventually burned with new brushes.
The Office of the National Water Service (NWS) for Monterey had warned that thunderstorms that produce “frequent lightning” swept along the central coast of the state, and issued harsh false warnings for the region.
“In addition to the lightning, the cluster of severe thunderstorms generate extremely strong erratic wind gusts, which can cause downed trees, power lines, and other structural damage, as well as heavy driving,” forecasters sei.
FIRE TORNADO WARNING GRIPS CALIFORNIA AS WILD FIRE EXPLODES WITH ‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’ CONDITIONS NORTH OF TAHOE
NWS spokesman Drew Peterson told SF Gate that hundreds of lightning strikes were recorded for 5 hours when storms raged in the region.
Lightning flashes across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland, California, Sunday, August 16, 2020. Numerous lightning strikes early on Sunday caused fires across the entire region.
(AP Photo / Noah Berger)
“We are seeing non-stop continuous lightning over the Bay Area, especially the west side, not so much on the east side,” he told the newscast.
A rare lightning storm crawls across Mitchell’s Cove in Santa Cruz, California at 3 a.m. Sunday morning, August 16, 2020.
(Shmuel Thaler / The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)
Many took to social media to show the fierce lightning in the air.
Some described the scene along the coast as “wild.”
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, tweeted Sunday morning that it was a ‘wild night’ in the Bay Area.
“This is probably the most widespread and violent summer storm in memory for Bay Area, and it’s also one of the hottest nights in years,” he said. tweeted.
Lightning from the thunder not only woke people up in the middle of the night, but also caused new problems for already busy firefighters.
CALIFORNIA BLACKOUTS PULL PLUG ON 2 MILLION WHEN HOT WAVE BAKES STATE
Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit said on Twitter that it had been fighting eight to 10 different fires across its entire territory for three hours.
“Could be more late this morning as the sun rises,” the unit said tweeted.
Record-breaking temperatures with triple-digit temperatures and low humidity in California this week have kept firefighters busy extinguishing fires in the state.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE WEATHER COVERAGE OF FOX NEWS
A red flag warning was issued for the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of Central California through Sunday morning due to critical fire conditions.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
The Marin County Fire Department said firefighters responded to “numerous lightning strikes” and “numerous small lightning fires.”
“Please call only 911 if you see a visible fire,” de Agency said.
Forecasters said that after an ‘extremely busy night’, chances of thunder will continue through Sunday and into Monday morning.
In addition to lightning, patterned winds of 60 to 75 mph are also mentioned.
“Due to the very frequent lightning, expect wildfires to start where lightning occurs, especially considering the particularly dry vegetation and heat and dry air mass at the surface below the increased moisture up,” the forecast office said.
A thunderstorm rolling from the Central Coast to the interior of Southern California on Saturday brought dry lightning that flooded several small flashes, wind and flashes in the high desert.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
