Over 1,200 Lightning Strikes In San Francisco Bay Area During Thunderstorms
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Over 1,200 lightning strikes were recorded in the Bay Area on Monday evening during the region's unusual rash of thunderstorms.
Some of those lightning strikes caused fires and various property damage across the Bay Area.
Cal Fire and Santa Clara County fire officials battled two vegetation fires around 6:30 p.m. near Loma Prieta ridge and Twin Creeks Road in the Los Gatos area.
Read also: Weird Bay Area Weather Continues With Thunderstorms, Lightning
Four lightning strikes were reported to have hit that area at about 5 p.m., causing the fires, Cal Fire officials said.
Delays from the rain and lightning led to multiple weather delays at AT&T Park where the San Francisco Giants were playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game resumed at the top of the first inning at 10:50 p.m. and did not finish until after 2 a.m. with the Giants winning 8-6.
Cal Fire said both fires were about a quarter acre in size and said they had air dropped water onto the fires.
On the peninsula, Woodside Fire Protection District Chief Dan Ghiorso said around 7 p.m. that crews there were responding to multiple lightning strikes that caused fires in the area.
The storm also brought power outages for PG&E crews to address Monday night. Shortly before 11 p.m., PG&E reported a total of 17,019 customers without power and 9,408 of that number in the Bay Area.
In San Francisco, there were 2,307 customers without power. On the Peninsula, 2,457 customers lost power with most of those affected concentrated in the city of San Mateo.
The East Bay had 3,525 with most of those affected concentrated in the city of Fremont.
The South Bay had about 923 customers affected while the North Bay had 196 customers who lost power.
PG&E called in extra crews to assist in addressing the outages.
Tuesday morning, the outages had been reduced to about 1,872 customers still without power. More than half of those customers were in San Francisco and on the Peninsula.
The National Weather Service said around 5 p.m. that over 800 lightning strikes were recorded as well as passing thunderstorms. The National Weather Service warned of hail near the San Luis Reservoir in Merced County.
On Tuesday morning, the NSW updated the lightning strike numbers to approximately 1,200 strikes and and nearly 7,000 totals flashes Monday for the entire Bay Area.
