Thunderstorms roll through parts of Bay Area and California's Central Valley, spark fires
Thunderstorms rolled through parts of the San Francisco Bay Area and California's Central Valley early Tuesday morning, leading to thousands of lightning strikes and sparking several fires.
According to the San Francisco Bay Area bureau of the National Weather Service, nearly 4,800 total lightning strikes were reported in the region between midnight and 5:30 a.m., which includes in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The storm brought very little rain, with most areas only seeing .1 inch or less.
A map provided by the weather service shows the lightning was concentrated in the inland East Bay and a wide swath of the Central Valley from Sacramento southward.
"Waking up to thunder and lightning this morning! This is the monsoonal moisture flowing north. Quite unusual to see this in the Valley this time of day / year," said CBS Sacramento Chief Meteorologist Nic Merianos.
The weather service said lightning may be to blame for fires in southeastern Monterey County and southwest Fresno County early Tuesday morning.
Cal Fire crews are responding to several fires that have started in the Sierra Foothills on Tuesday, including the 2-2 and 2-3 fires near the community of Copperopolis, the Copper Fire burning in Amador County, the Rock Fire burning south of Folsom and the Sierra Fire burning in Placer County.
It was not immediately known if lightning sparked all of the fires.
According to the weather service, thunderstorms remain possible through the early afternoon in the interior eastern portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Benito and Monterey counties.
In the Sacramento area and Central Valley, a 10-30% chance of isolated thunderstorms continues Tuesday afternoon and evening, with thunderstorms remanining possible into the overnight hours. The highest chances of thunderstorms are in the mountains.