September 3rd, 2007

Last Wednesday night, we were treated to a rare thunderstorm here in central California. The weather event apparently took everyone by storm (puntastic!). I heard a weather report from a local radio station from Wednesday morning, and the meteorologist specifically said that he saw no rain in the immediate forecast. Me and Jen were eating dinner around 9:30PM when we saw the first flash of lightning. It took a noble burst of thunder to prove to us that it really was a thunderstorm. Further proof came in the form of an e-mail from PG&E, timestamped 10:16PM. The subject simply read “THUNDERSTORM WARNING,” and the body of the message appeared as follows:

Thunderstorm Warning 08/29/07

Subtropical moisture is streaming northward towards the Diablo Canyon coastline tonight. Doppler radar shows numerous thunderstorms moving north over our area. These thunderstorms are expected to continue through tonight, ending by 0400 on Thursday morning.

These thunderstorms will be accompanied by lightning, gusty winds and a chance of rain showers.

This was exciting news. I enjoy a good storm, and we usually only get one per year. The storm seemed to come in waves, where it would go strong for 20-30 minutes and then go into a lull period, only to return to its previous strength. During one of these lulls, I decided to venture out into the street to try and capture some interesting video of the storm. Unfortunately, none of my footage came out. But a YouTuber in nearby Morro Bay did get some great shots of the storm’s lightning display:

(And here’s an image from local weather radar showing actual precipitation over central California:)

The next day, I saw some tree repairmen working on a tree downtown.

I don’t know if the tree maintenance was due to affects of the storm. But it might’ve been. Anyway, storms rule. I hope we don’t have to go another year before the next one.

(Photos also available through Flickr.)

Tags: California, Flickr, rain, San Luis Obispo
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