With the strong winds and numerous lightning-sparked fires we have going on around here right now, odds are high we’ll lose power this evening - one way or another. With the remnants of ex-tropical storm Fausto differing further to the west, the dry thunderstorms we’ve had the past few days should stay west of this location, putting an end to new fire formation.
How about wildfires?
We currently have a wildfire here(I'm under an evacuation warning). So far, it's burned 550 acres and is 5% contained. It was probably sparked by the dry thunderstorms we had early Monday morning.
We had lots of dry thunderstorms. They rolled in just before 1 Monday morning. A loud crack of thunder shook the house rousing me from sleep. The lightning was phenomenal. There was more lightning than thunder. The storms moved out of this location around 2 am, but they continued all around the North State, igniting everywhere. Most were quickly brought under control. However, the one we have now was in steep terrain (river canyon). They were quick to respond and had it surrounded with retardant, but then strong winds suddenly picked up, quickly whipping it up the canyon.
A ‘storm’ is defined as, “a disturbance of the normal condition of the atmosphere, manifesting itself by winds of unusual force or direction”. The word ‘storm’ usually conjures up images of strong wind driven rain (hurricane, thunderstorm, and such.). However, a ‘storm’ doesn’t necessarily have to be wet (e.g. dust storms).
A dry thunderstorm happens when the air below the storm is so dry that most, if not all of rain that falls evaporates before hitting the ground. You still get all the lighting, thunder and wind of a “normal” thunderstorm, but no rain. Dry thunderstorms are very common here in the west.
Since lightning can form anywhere in a thunderstorm cell (or on the ground below), it’s very common to see bolts of lightning flash well before any rain starts to fall.
Shuhak 