First Alert Weather: Plume of monsoonal moisture triggers popup showers with lightning

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A plume of monsoonal moisture drifted over the San Francisco Bay Area early Monday, triggering popup storm cells with lightning, elevating fears of wildfires and bringing with it a First Alert Weather day.

The National Weather Service warned of a day of unstable weather.

“Currently in our local area, the bulk of these showers are located in 3 hot spots: the interior Central Coast, across the coastal waters, and increasingly in the North Bay, the weather service said. “Showers are due to a surge of monsoonal moisture advecting northward from the south in a clockwise fashion.”

There was also low pressure system anchored just offshore of Cape Mendocino adding to the mix.

While the lightning strikes were remaining offshore early Monday, there were a pockets of showers streaming across the North Bay carrying with them light rain.

Any threat of lightning brings with it the fear of wildfires in the drought parched hillsides.  While officials had yet to locate its ignition point, the Mckinney Fire roared to life amid several days of Red Flag conditions and lightning in the Klamath National Forest along the California-Oregon border.

 Authorities have discovered two bodies in a burned vehicle in the path of the fire that has destroyed much of the small community of Klamath River, charred 52,498 acres and had zero percent containment.

The fire exploded in size to more than 82 square miles becoming California’s largest wildfire of the year so far.

“The fuel beds are so dry and they can just erupt from that lightning,” U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman said. “These thunder cells come with gusty erratic winds that can blow fire in every direction.”

Two bodies were found Sunday inside the charred vehicle located in a residential driveway near the remote community of Klamath River, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday. The victims were not immediately identified.

Flames torched trees along State Route 96 and raced through hillsides in sight of homes on Sunday. The blaze cast an eerie, orange-brown hue, in one neighborhood where a brick chimney stood surrounded by rubble and scorched vehicles. Crews on the ground worked to keep the fire from moving east into the town of Yreka, home to 7,500 people.

A second, smaller fire just to the west that was sparked by dry lightning Saturday threatened the tiny town of Seiad. About 400 structures were under threat from the two California fires. Authorities have not confirmed the extent of the damage yet, saying assessments would begin when it was safe to reach the area.

A third fire, which was on the southwest end of the McKinney blaze, prompted evacuation orders for around 500 homes Sunday, said Courtney Kreider, a spokesperson with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office. The office said crews had been on the scene of the fire since late Saturday but by the following morning it “became active and escaped its containment line.”