Lightning threat brings wildfire dangers

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- When most people see the big puffy clouds on the eastern horizon, they see the wonder of shape-shifting animals and objects rolling across the sky, but experts and rescuers see one more thing to be concerned about.

“We are seeing unusual fire activity, but that’s because we have a lot of fuel from the result of two wet years. So brush is deep and thick, and there’s a lot of it,” said Alex Tardy from the National Weather Service.  

These cumulonimbus clouds the puffy, tall brilliantly white isolated monsters hovering over San Diego can also bring lighting.

“We’ve seen a lot of strikes down in the southeastern part of our county and up through some of the desert areas,” said Capt. Mike Cornette from Cal Fire San Diego.

Cal Fire crews have been monitoring the cloud activity for the last few days as the monsoon weather slides over the county. So far, no major fires to speak of but the “potential for a lightning strike to cause a fire is high especially when there is no rain and that could be out in the remote area and it could take a while for us to get there,” Cornette said.

And while that danger has seemingly passed by, there was also a flash flood warning in the mountains as the rain cells dropped an inch and a half in just an hour.

“Those clouds build up real big and then they go almost as fast as they build, they come down. We experience a lot of erratic winds, rains, potentially hail sometimes, so it’s kind of a dynamic situation when those are building up,” Cornette said.