Lightning storm illuminates Santa Barbara skies
A rare September storm lit up Santa Barbara County’s night skies with thunder and dazzling lightning strikes as Tuesday turned into Wednesday.
The National Weather Service in Oxnard reported more than 2,000 lightning strikes over the Pacific, with 272 bolts striking the ground in the county, according to meteorologist Ryan Kittell.
NWS reports the lightning presence as a rare occurrence and most of the thunderstorm activity happened over the ocean.
Thunderstorms over land could bring other impacts such as lightning fires and increased rain amounts, flash flooding and debris flow in vulnerable areas such as recent burn scars.
The county received less than an inch of rain in the 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning, with Buellton recording the highest at 0.63 inches, according to county rain gauges.
Santa Barbara recorded 0.26 inches, Santa Maria recorded 0.32 inches, Lompoc recorded 0.41 inches, Solvang recorded 0.53 inches, Goleta recorded 0.14 inches and Carpinteria recorded 0.07 inches.
The weather forecast earlier this week predicted Tuesday and Wednesday as the wettest days due to a low-pressure system above the Central Coast and Southern California.
Going forward, the rest of the week’s forecast is for patchy fog and sunny conditions across the county.
Carpinteria may be on the cooler side with a daytime high of 67 to 68 for Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile Santa Ynez may see a warmer side with a daytime high of 80 to 82 on Thursday and Friday. Santa Barbara, Goleta, Santa Maria and Lompoc areas have daytime high temperatures forecasted in the range of 72 to 75.
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