Lightning over the Bay

Thousands of lightning flashes lit up Bay Area skies Monday night, giving residents a show seldom seen in the region.

The unusual weather - and the mostly dry lightning - is forecast to continue through Wednesday.


The National Weather Service has issued a red-flag warning for much of the area because of the threat of lightning touching off brushfires on dry hillsides. Little rainfall has accompanied the storm.
Firefighters with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection have beefed up staffing and remain on alert in anticipation of more lightning strikes. The lightning has not sparked any blazes near the Bay Area, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant.

"Not a lot of it hit the ground," he said.

The low-pressure system generating the lightning is sitting just off the coast and is being fed by monsoonal moisture, said meteorologist Christine Riley of the National Weather Service.
The system was responsible for more than 11,000 lightning flashes reported Monday night between Monterey and Napa counties, Riley said.

"It's definitely a relatively rare event," she said.

Most of the lightning was in San Mateo County, Riley said, but the flashes were also captured on the smart phones of sky-gazers at AT&T Park, on Twin Peaks and other points north.