OMG! Thunderstorm in San Francisco!

[ReverendDeuce]

As a midwest native and recent San Francisco Bay resident, I can say that it's about bloody time... I miss thunderstorms so much! This is the first time I've seen lightning and heard thunder in quite some time.

From what I Google, it seems this is very rare for the Bay...

[Nictuku]

1. It woke me up!

I woke up with the building rattling and these bomb sounds going off and I didn't know if the building was falling down due to an earthquake or what. Scared the shit out of me! (and my pets)

Once I realized it was lightening/thunder, I was able to relax a bit, but so much for sleeping in on Saturday. Here I go watching C-SPAN at 4 am (like usual).

Maybe I'll fall back asleep by 6 and then get to sleep in today, heh.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Yes it IS unusual here. The thunder woke me up.

It happens every 5 years or so in the East Bay.

[Auggie]

3. Better yet -- RAIN!

A little in the North Bay. It's better than nothing.

[mackerel]

4. I was out of town, I heard it hit the East Bay as well.

[Xithras]

5. I you ever want to see lightning...

Watch the weather for a "thunderstorm pattern"...typically a southern Pacific low pressure front displacing a static high pressure front. That happens 4-5 times a year, on average. Once you see that pattern, hop in your car and drive about an hour east to the Central Valley.

I don't know if it's the flat ground or the change in air pressure, but warm storms that generate nothing but rain and wind in the Bay Area turn into full-on thunderstorms once they leave the coast hills and enter the flatlands. We typically get 2-3 good thunderstorms in the Central Valley every year, and a few more small ones in addition to that. There are storm chasers in the Bay Area (mostly photographers) who make the trek to the Valley every time that pattern comes through, just hoping to see a good thunderstorm.

The only unusual thing about this last storm is that it turned into a thunderstorm a bit further west than normal. Still, we were getting 2-3 groundstrikes a minute over here for a while, which was spectacular to watch (the firefighters weren't huge fans though).

[pspworld]

6. Thunderstorm are not rare in the Bay Area, they are common ans severe storms occur too

Hey ReverendDeuce thunderstorms in the Bay Area is a common
event like anywhere in the US. On average we have about 30
thunderstorms in California every year. We even get severe
thunderstorms and yes they do produce straight line damaging
winds and sometime a tornado. March 20, 2005 an F-1 tornado
ripped through South San Francisco causing moderate damage and
it was spawn by a supercell and as a native from the Midwest
I'm sure you are totally familiar with supercells. We even get
severe hail as big as 2 inches have been recorded in the
Central Valleys. San Francisco had .84 inch hail a few years
ago and that came with intense lightning. February 2004 a
severe thunderstorm slam into San Francisco and brought 65 mph
wind gusts but during 1998 El Nino year a severe storm brought
77 mph wind gust and man we had wide spread damage throughout
the city. It has been quite lately because of the drought, but
with this years growing El Nino we are certainly to see much
more intense storms and likely severe ones too. December 19,
1891 a tornado hit San Francisco but it was weak but still
damaging. Because of climate change over the past century,
another tornado at the present day would cause much more
damage, and probably produce winds over 100 mph. Southern
California had an F-3 tornado during the 1980's and winds were
estimated around 165 mph. This tornado leveled a convention
center and cost over 3 million to repair. I'm a meteorology
student and I study and look at these events. If you want to
know more historical weather events let me know and I will
link you articles. 

[Book Lover]

8. I know you have the data in front of you, BUT as a ~20 year resident of a coastal SF Bay city

I can tell you that I have observed thunder and lightning perhaps three times during my stay here. I can't call it a common occurrence. But what's your data? Thanks!

[slutticus]

9. lol....yeah

[chatnoir]

7. Miss them big time too

This is the first one, I think, we've had out here since moving from Chicago 3 yrs ago.

So miss thunderstorms...

[ailsagirl]

10. Thunder scares the hell out of me-- and my cats too

It sounds silly but loud noises always scare me!!

But it was something, alright!!

More rain!!

[mule_train]

11. my brother in law arrived at des moines airport years ago, and was amazed at a spectacular electrica

electrical storm that was occurring all around the airport