Dozens Of Lightning Strikes Reported As Showers Move Across Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The Bay Area saw widespread showers across the Bay Area accompanied by dozens of lightning strikes over the past few hours.
KPIX 5 meteorologist Roberta Gonzales reported that lightning began touching down in the ocean off the coast of Monterey before 9 a.m., but by noon there were several strikes reported near Mountain View, Los Altos and Mount Hamilton in the South Bay.
It's a rare #BayArea thunderstorm on the Peninsula... #PaloAlto #Stanford @Stanford pic.twitter.com/MsCQv1DSSb
— Paul Deanno (@PaulDeannoNBC5) May 14, 2015
As the evening commute neared, the thunder began to center on the East Bay.
Rain & t'storms are blossoming in East Bay. Pouring rain heading for Dublin, Hayward, Antioch, Pittsburg... pic.twitter.com/GCC6DTYUv1
— Paul Deanno (@PaulDeannoNBC5) May 14, 2015
"There were more than 2 dozen (lightning strikes) near Mt. Diablo in the past 75 minutes," KPIX Chief Meteorologist Paul Deanno said as 3:24 p.m.
Weather watcher Mike Tomeh in San Jose let us know he was seeing light showers just before noon. There were even reports of hail in both the North and South Bay.
@KCBSNews - Hail in Novato. pic.twitter.com/n294wSo4lE
— Donald Bensen (@bensen408) May 14, 2015
The showers, which arrived slightly later than forecast, should be moving on to the east by mid evening. Rainfall totals are expected to be modest, less than a quarter of an inch for most of the Bay Area.
Farther east, Tahoe and other parts of the Sierra are anticipating as much as 10 inches of snow at higher elevations.
As the snow melts, another storm looms. Several inches of snow above 6,000 feet is in the forecast for Thursday. As a...
Posted by Yosemite National Park on Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Track the showers on interactive radar or get an hour-by-hour forecast for your zip code in the CBS San Francisco Weather Center.