For the 24-hr. period ending midnight Sunday, Earth Networks detected 10,548 lightning strikes in California, with 4,393 strikes within National Forests.
According to the National Weather Service in Sacramento, the main low center that’s been responsible for importing the moisture and instability into NorCal is currently located over southern Nevada and will shift east today. However, a weak trough is forecast to linger over central and southern California through at least mid-week as ridging over the eastern Pacific is held at bay.
Enough moisture and instability will remain in place for late-day showers and thunderstorms over the Coast Range, northern Sacramento Valley and Sierra/Cascades. Today and Tuesday look rather active again, then thunderstorm chances may retreat further to the east by Wednesday and Thursday as ridging noses in from the Pacific. Stronger storms will be accompanied by lightning, heavy rain, hail and gusty winds.
Tahoe National Forest
For the Tahoe National Forest, the first active strike was detected yesterday at 1:52 pm and the last strike registered at 6:20pm. A total of 323 strikes were recorded on the TNF. 136 on the Yuba River Ranger District, 106 on the American River Ranger District, 62 on the Truckee River Ranger District and 19 on the Sierraville Ranger District.
Firefighters will continue to conduct recon checks and flights throughout the National Forests today. Several single tree fires were located and extinguished yesterday.