RECORD HEAT

Lightning From Rare Thunderstorm Fuels California Fires

Lightning strikes and wind gusts grew an already burning forest fire in Los Angeles and sparked several small fires in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Lightning produced by a thunderstorm in California on Sunday triggered several small wildfires in the state’s northern region and spurred on a massive forest fire north of Los Angeles that has forced hundreds to evacuate their homes. The Lake fire, which had been roaring before the storm hit when wind gusts and lightning strikes pushed it farther uphill, has burned almost 28 square miles and destroyed 33 buildings, about a dozen of which were homes. The fire was only 12 percent contained as of Sunday morning. Further north in the San Francisco Bay Area, rare lightning struck more than 4,000 times during the storm, setting fires and causing widespread power outages across the region. “This is probably the most widespread and violent summer thunderstorm event in memory for Bay Area, & it’s also one of the hottest nights in years,” University of California Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote in a tweet.