Hundreds of lightning strikes hit the Central Coast

Some new numbers Wednesday on just how many lightning strikes were on the Central Coast.

It’s been a busy week for thunderstorms across the state, overnight some produced lots of lightning and even some hail too.

According to the National Weather Service, the Central Coast saw more than three hundred strikes.

Michael Pitruzzello witnessed Wednesday morning’s storm from his boat out in the Monterey Bay. Pitruzzello said he doesn’t scare easily but the electricity in the sky and roaring sound of thunder certainly had the long-time boater frightened.

“It’s pretty scary at times when you are out there on the water, the lightning really bright, the thunder real loud, pretty tense out there,” said Pitruzzello.

The NWS said there were close to 360 cloud to ground lightning strikes this week on the Central Coast. The cause of the lightning strikes, a combination of lower pressure brought up some monsoonal moisture from Southern California. Add in some instability in the atmosphere and you’ve got one big recipe for thunderstorms.

Brian Garcia, a Meteorologist for the National Weather Service said, “we haven’t seen this many lightning strikes across our area in a few years. Is it unusual? It happens every few years, but it’s not uncommon.”

The strikes have been causing some issues though, Cal Fire said across Northern California there have been more than two thousand lightning strikes in the past 24 hours and started 71 fires.

On Monday, a strike caused a fire near Soledad. Wednesday morning’s storm brought some rain with it, which was good news for firefighters.

Garcia said, “a lot of them dropped enough rain that any sort of spark that hit the ground was generally wetted out pretty fast.”

As far as safety is concerned, the National Weather Service uses a simple saying, “if thunder roars go indoors.”