Summer finishes with a boom

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Sep 21, 2005 | by Tara Ramroop, STAFF WRITER

San Mateo County was thunderstruck Tuesday afternoon, as unseasonal rumbling and lightning flashes moved through the area, but forecasters predicted the weather would return to normal within a day.

A low-pressure system meandering through Southern California pushed subtropical moisture north, creating the rainfall bursts, National Weather Service forecaster Diana Henderson said. Hundreds of lightning strikes were reported around the Bay Area, and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. reported power outages affecting 16,000 customers. A PG&E spokesman said Millbrae alone saw at least 80 strikes.

Lightning hit a home on Skyline Boulevard in Woodside Tuesday afternoon, burning a hole in the roof, but the couple who lives there weren't hurt.

Rainfall was pretty light in San Mateo County: Pacifica saw .01 inches of rain, Redwood City had .07 and San Francisco International Airport weighed in with .08.

The counter-clockwise-spinning, low-pressure system should push the moisture back to the southeast today.

"All this should be over with then," said Henderson. "It should move on, and then be Arizona's problem."

The subtropical air on Tuesday brought temperatures into the muggy mid-60s around the Peninsula. Humidity jumped up to 72 percent at San Francisco International Airport, Henderson said, from an average of 30 to 40 percent.

Local roads were mostly calm on Tuesday, but the California Highway Patrol was still bracing for accidents.

"Considering this is the first rainfall, people haven't adapted to the weather conditions," CHP Officer Christian Oliver said.

Staff writer Tara Ramroop covers San Mateo. She can be reached at (650) 348-4302 or by e-mail at tramroop@sanmateocountytimes.com.