A slight chance of lightning strikes tonight will yield to a
slightly bigger chance of showers in Morgan Hill Sunday, according
to forecasters.
A slight chance of lightning strikes tonight will yield to a slightly bigger chance of showers in Morgan Hill Sunday, according to forecasters.
Storms coming from the south could reach as far as San Jose, bringing a “less than 10-percent chance” of rain tonight, according to National Weather Service forecaster Diana Henderson. In fact, Morgan Hill is more likely to see lightning than any moisture.
“The biggest threat is if there was a cloud-to-ground strike, and it started a fire,” Henderson said.
Calfire officials are thinking the same thing. The state fire service sent out a press release this afternoon, announcing that a “red flag warning” is in effect until 11 p.m. Friday for parts of the Central Coast and farther south. The warning is the result of “predicted dry lightning and gusty winds” due to possible scattered showers, according to the Calfire announcement.
A red flag means Calfire will increase its staffing and resources in the affected areas tonight, including the deployment of additional reserve fire engines, more inmate fire crews and other equipment, the press release said.
Earlier this month, the state was pummeled farther inland by a series of dry lightning thunderstorms that resulted in over 50,000 lightning strikes, sparking approximately 200 wildfires, which burned nearly 70,000 acres, Calfire officials said. The increased fire activity kept firefighters busy for over a week and served as a reminder of how dry conditions are across the state.
Then on Sunday, a storm coming from the opposite direction is slightly more likely to make the ground wet, Henderson said.
There’s about a 20-percent chance for rain showers from a system coming from the north, she said. The brunt of that storm will be near North Bay cities Napa, Sonoma and Marin.
