Storms Light Summer Sky and a Rash of Brush Fires

The electrical storms that crackled through parts of California over the weekend staged pre-dawn and evening return engagements Monday, with more predicted, and left dozens of brush fires in their wake.

Officials said lightning caused more than 100 brush fires to hopscotch through eight national forests in the state. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recorded almost 9,000 separate lightning strikes between Bishop and the Mexican border.

Rainfall from the storms ranged from 0.11 of an inch at San Juan Capistrano to only a trace at most other locations.

More thunder and lightning storms formed in the coastal mountains Monday evening, following winds from the east and southeast, said Steve Burback, meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“There will be a repeat pattern day after day, until drier air comes in from southwestern winds,” he added. “It will probably stay that way for the next three to five days.”

The San Gabriel Mountains and foothill communities were the scene of most of the action Monday night, with spectacular lightning displays, numerous small related brush fires and brief power outages.

And thunder reverberated eerily through the high-rises in downtown Los Angeles late into the night as the storms moved to the west.

Most of the fires reported during the day were small, including five in Angeles National Forest. They were either quickly controlled or not considered threatening, fire officials said.

A San Bernardino National Forest spokeswoman described fires there as “spot fires, a bush here, a tree there, or a little snag of grass.”

The various small blazes included four in San Bernardino National Forest, 40 in Stanislaus National Forest east of Sonora and 35 in Sierra National Forest east of Fresno.

But two fires in Kern County’s Sequoia National Forest were still out of control late Monday and had consumed a combined 1,620 acres. Six bulldozers, three helicopters and 600 firefighters were battling the flames.

The blazes were burning in separate areas northwest of Kernville but were expected to merge into one large fire, forest information officer Lindsay Maierhofer said.

Flames advanced slowly on the small community of Wofford Heights, located between Kernville and Lake Isabella, Monday evening, bringing a call for a voluntary evacuation of residents as a precaution, but a fire spokesman said, “There is no immediate threat to the town.”

A third lightning-caused fire had consumed 10 acres by late Monday, Maierhofer added.

In Stanislaus National Forest, Assistant Fire Management Officer Gary Biehl said none of the fires had burned more than three acres and most had fire crews on the scene.

“We’re bringing additional resources in in case the storms recur,” he added, “and as of now we are guardedly optimistic.”

In San Diego County, two fires started in Cleveland National Forest. One burned about two acres and was put out Monday. Another on the Viejas Indian Reservation was still going Monday night after scorching more than 150 acres.

The Bureau of Land Management reported three fires, none exceeding six acres and all listed as controlled Monday, said Dick Franklin, district fire management officer. One was near Mojave in the Tehachapis and two in Yucca Valley.

In the Los Angeles Basin, a lightning-caused brush fire consumed about seven acres in Rancho Palos Verdes. The pre-dawn storm that caused it also created an unscheduled sound and light show for many in the area.

Dorothy Howlett of the Palos Verdes Peninsula said she and her husband were awakened by the storm shortly after 4 a.m.

They walked onto their balcony to watch the lighting streak back and forth across the sky above the ocean. “It was very exciting, and so bright I felt I had to put sunglasses on,” she said.

The couple saw the small brush fire start “as a circle that got bigger and bigger,” Howlett said.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department said the blaze at Palos Verdes Drive South and Peppertree Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes was quickly extinguished and no homes or other structures were threatened.

Elsewhere, lightning strikes ignited four small brush fires in the northern part of Los Angeles County, but no serious damage resulted.

Lightning set off two small brush fires in a mountainous area north of Granada Hills, burning about two acres of brush just north of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill on San Fernando Road shortly before 6 p.m., Los Angeles city fire officials said. Four water-dropping helicopters and 18 engine companies extinguished them.

In Newhall, lightning started two fires west of the Golden State Freeway near Weldon Summit shortly before 6 p.m. They burned about an acre of brush, county fire officials said. Two water-dropping helicopters and 150 firefighters extinguished the blazes within two hours.

Lightning strikes also triggered power outages in communities throughout the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and San Gabriel valleys Monday night.

Southern California Edison said more than 1,000 customers were affected from Newhall to Glendale and Pasadena, a spokeswoman said.

The Department of Water and Power estimated that 800 customers were in the dark for a time in Mission Hills and Granada Hills.

Hot, muggy weather continued throughout the region.

The mercury peaked at 89 degrees at the Los Angeles Civic Center, Anaheim and Long Beach, 101 in Monrovia, 97 in Northridge and Pasadena, 95 in San Gabriel and Van Nuys and 77 at Los Angeles International Airport, the National Weather Service said. Relative humidity at the Civic Center ranged from 47% to 78%.

Humidity readings were 50% in the late afternoon in Los Angeles and 63% in Santa Ana, Burback said, adding that levels would increase to 85% to 90% during the night.