Scattered yet often powerful thunderstorms hammered parts of Lake County on Wednesday afternoon, knocking out power to some areas — including the Record-Bee office.
Just before 3 p.m., Chuck Sturgis was cleaning up outside his Soda Bay home after Sunday’s heavy downpour when the skies opened up. Just under an inch of rain fell in just 20 minutes, accompanied by hail. The hail began as granules but grew into pea-sized pieces.
“I don’t have one geranium standing from what was left after the other day,” Sturgis said.
On Sunday 2 inches of precipitation in half an hour drenched parts of the same area, causing the flooding of at least one home.
Dozens of lightning strikes were recorded in and around Clearlake on Wednesday, where a strike damaged a home over the weekend.
At approximately 5 p.m., a bolt of lightning hit a transformer along Main St. in south Lakeport. The powerful strike exploded the transformer, which reportedly arced across the road, knocking out a second transformer.
This incident cut power to parts of south Lakeport, including the Record-Bee.
Because of resulting early deadlines, any further storm information will be reported on Friday.
