Cooler, fall-like conditions return to San Diego County on this first week of October 2021, plus showers Monday evening. Here’s what you can expect from our weather this week.
Chance of Rain in San Diego County
There were light, scattered showers across San Diego County Monday, but the real jaw-dropper was Mother Nature's fantastic evening light show.
The National Weather Service said it detected lightning strikes near Del Mar as early as around 2:20 p.m., but as the sun fell in the evening lightning helped brighten the sky with shades of orange, pink and purple.
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NBC 7's Dana Griffin captured a shot of a bolt breaking across the sky near Miramar.
Here's another shot of a stellar bolt of lightning from anchor Catherine Garcia.
Monday's thunderstorm wasn't all beauty, though. Lightning-related fires were reported across the county.
Got cool pictures and videos of your own? Send them to: isee@nbcsandiego.com.
Afternoon lightning strikes prompted the city of Carlsbad to close its North Beach, and the State Parks Department to close the rest of the city's beaches until the storm passed.
The NWS said Monday's system would bring some “rainy hocus pocus to SoCal” Monday and Tuesday. The agency wasn't wrong.
By 7 p.m. Monday, the NWS expected a storm to push northwest along the coast and dump heavy rain, thunder and lightning, and maybe even hail.
Monday's 12-hour rainfall totals had Granite Hills in the lead for the wettest neighborhood in the county as of 9 p.m.
Granite Hills: .43 inches
Lake Murray: .32 Inches
Deer Springs: .30 Inches
El Cajon: .28 inches
Lemon Grove: .27 inches
NBC 7 meteorologist Sheena Parveen said the first half of Monday would be dry but as an area of low pressure moves through Southern California, parts of San Diego County would see howers and maybe even some thunderstorms.
By 3 p.m. Monday, the NWS was seeing fast-moving storm cells pushing from Mexican waters north toward San Diego, with beaches and coastal cities in their path.
Scattered showers should be moving through the coastal and inland areas between 11 p.m. Monday and 4 a.m. Tuesday, NBC 7 meteorologist Brian James added.
“From 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, the best opportunity for rain will move into the mountains and desert,” James explained.
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James said Monday’s rainy weather would also bring some cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.
When all is said and done, rain totals from this weather pattern could be around 0.2 to 0.5 inches, Parveen added.
By Tuesday afternoon, San Diego County should be dry.
Cooler, Comfortable Temps Through the Week
Starting Tuesday, much cooler temps are also on the horizon. An onshore flow will keep that pattern going for a while, too.
“This will begin our cooling trend through the rest of the week,” Parveen explained. “Get ready to see and feel some changes!”
The onshore flow will persist through the end of this week and into the weekend.
And you may need to grab a sweater.
“This will increase clouds and keep temperatures much cooler, feeling more like fall with a chill in the air,” Parveen said.
According to NBC 7’s First Alert Forecast, there’s a chance another weak weather system will move through San Diego County by Friday and bring with it some light showers.
The weekend will remain cool.
And, come next week, the fall feeling is likely to last.
“We may see a fairly active weather pattern next week, too,” Parveen explained.
