Lightning Illuminates the California Coast 8/16/2020

As a stubborn high pressure ridge clamped down on California with record-breaking heat, a slug of elevated moisture and instability from Tropical Depression Fausto raced north up the Central Coast and hit the Bay Area overnight. Rapidly enhancing elevated thunderstorms generated frequent cloud-to-ground lightning, produced outflow winds of 50-60 mph, and caused the red flag warning to be extended. As the moisture was extremely elevated (storm base heights and LCLs at 2-3 km), most rain evaporated in the hot, dry air below. As the non-stop flashing on the horizon grew brighter and the rumble of thunder crescendoed, it was clear the Bay Area was in for an intense morning.
Note: Night time footage from these cameras tend to be grainy because of short exposures.

0:00 11 pm: Scattered storm cells develop west of south Santa Barbara coast
0:22 Thunderstorm complex off southern Big Sur coast
1:12 Constant lightning approaching Monterey + roll cloud (Epilepsy warning)
2:00 Severe storms reach Santa Cruz

Atmospheric Soundings on 8/16: www.spc.ncep.noaa.gov/exper/archive/events/2020081…
How to read soundings:
www.weatherwatch.net.au/weather/atmospheric-soundi….
www.weather.gov/source/zhu/ZHU_Training_Page/conve…
Maps:
twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1295059478572752896
twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1294928427095482368
twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1294991853972910086
Better time lapses of the event:
twitter.com/Negative_Tilt/status/12949943778576261…
twitter.com/crashingout/status/1294968085737218048
News article:
sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/08/16/rare-august-t…

Time Lapses from the ALERTWildfire network www.alertwildfire.org/ managed by the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno in partnership with PG&E.