A heatwave in California was interrupted on Wednesday as monsoon moisture from the Gulf of Mexico invaded Southern California early Wednesday, delivering scattered thunderstorms and lightning to the region.
The National Weather Service reported a series of rains and thunderstorms over Ventura County and Los Angeles County shortly after 8:30 a.m. “Expect lightning, light hail and heavy rain again during the day. Plan extra time on the roads today, “the Los Angeles Meteorological Office said on Twitter.
The North American Lightning Detection Network detected 25,000 lightning strikes between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in California.
The climb is aimed at the San Joaquin Valley and southern Sacramento Valley and will affect the San Francisco Bay Area this afternoon. As the monsoon moisture moves in the area, clouds are expected to arrive from the east and there is little chance of thunderstorms, hail, rain and dry lightning until Thursday.
Both low and high clouds are moving north this morning!
The high clouds are due to monsoon humidity and strong thunderstorms in the east.
The low clouds are coastal fog from the southern wave of sea layers.
This image encapsulates our summer time. pic.twitter.com/EgWGc9qJWc
– NWS Bay Area @ (@NWSBayArea) June 22, 2022
The monsoon refers to the seasonal reversal of winds. The summer monsoon is associated with increased activity of thunderstorms; in North America, winds extract moisture from the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and carry it to the southwestern United States
The summer monsoon is a typical weather pattern that is most pronounced in the inland southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico. Moisture is sometimes pushed north into California.
In most situations, lightning is more common in the Sierra Nevada than along the coast due to the lack of sea layer in the mountains and its topography. In the mountains, the air mass is forced to rise, intensifying thunderstorms.
Drew Peterson, a weather forecaster with the Monterey Meteorological Office, said that as the moisture approached the bay area, a low-pressure system off the coast of Big Sur would move it counterclockwise.
As the moisture moves east of the Sacramento Valley to a larger area of the bay, it will lose strength, but there is still a chance of thunderstorms, bursts of heavy rain and hail and dry lightning starting at 14:00 or 15:00: 00 with a peak around 4 to 20:00. There is a possibility for another round on Thursday.
“I’d say for the most part we’re looking at scattered heavy rains with potentially isolated or two thunderstorms,” Peterson said. “The most likely areas for this are almost from Hollister in the north to around Benicia, including the whole of Santa Clara County, Contra Costa Contra, Alameda County, Solano County and Napa County, with the greatest potential on the eastern side of these counties.
Peterson said thunderstorms are less likely in Marin and San Francisco, but they are still possible.
Although the blaze was a problem, Peterson said the meteorological service had not issued a red flag warning for the region.
“The risk is almost critical, just below the need to issue a red flag warning, but we are missing some of the key ingredients such as winds and widespread dry lightning that make the risk of fire serious,” Peterson said.
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