Thunderstorms in San Francisco!

We've had quite an eventful couple of days weatherwise across California.  Yesterday, a storm system moved through with mostly light to moderate rain in the Bay Area.  Daytime heating though helped fuel several thunderstorms in the Central Valley, one of which produced a tornado near Stockton (picture on right).  The tornado was rated an F1 (on a scale of F0 to F5, F5 being the strongest) with winds estimated near 90 mph; one garage was destroyed while the tornado was briefly on the ground.  Tornadoes are rated based on the damage they produce.  Tornadoes are generally rare in California and when they do occur, they are usually weak and short lived, and occur in smaller thunderstorms compared to the large, supercell thunderstorms that produce violent tornadoes east of the Rockies.  I'll write more about that in a future post.

Then, last night, another system quickly moved through with a brief period of heavy rain, gusty winds, and a few lightning strikes in the San Francisco area.  A stronger system is now impacting our region and produced a strong line of thunderstorms that crossed through San Francisco earlier this evening.  Those storms produced a lot of lightning and thunder - probably the most I've seen in my ~6 years on the West Coast.  It wasn't quite a Midwestern thunderstorm, but it was quite impressive for San Francisco.  Rain will continue on and off tonight into tomorrow morning.  Then, Saturday will be partly sunny but cool, followed by warmer temps Sunday and Monday.