NEVADA CITY, Calif. July 23, 2018 – 1,610 lightning strikes were recorded within California on Sunday, July 22nd. 986 strikes were detected within the National Forests. The east side of the Sierra Nevada received the brunt of the lightning, mostly with precipitation. At times, the downpours were heavy enough to trigger flash flood warnings.
The National Weather Service in Sacramento reports:
Elevated instability progs look similar to yesterday, thus expect areas that saw deep moist convection Sunday could have development again today. Best locations for afternoon thunderstorms look to be over the higher terrain of Eastern Shasta and Plumas counties, and near the Sierra Nevada crest. Slight chance of a late day thunderstorm is also possible over the NW Coastal Range, but best chances look to be outside of our CWA.
On Tuesday, midlevel flow begins to take on a SWly component, with slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms confined to near the Sierra Nevada crest. SWly becomes more dominant Wednesday, and thus expect any afternoon storms will be east of the Sierra Nevada crest.
WFMI BLM detected 53 strikes within the Tahoe National Forest, 34 for Truckee Ranger District. and 19 for Sierraville Ranger District.
The first active strike for the TNF was on Sunday afternoon 4:11 pm, the last active strike hit Sunday evening 7:14 pm.
Similar conditions are forecast for today.