County’s Weather Takes a Tropical Turn : Storms: Traffic accidents and brush fires result from squalls carrying lightning and high winds--but not much rain.

Squalls like those of the tropics, packing lightning and tree-bending winds, raked Orange County on Thursday and touched off a handful of traffic accidents and small brush fires.

Although brief downpours hit areas from Capistrano Beach to Huntington Beach, the fast-moving storm left little measurable rain.

At Westminster High School, a lightning strike at 7 p.m. punched out football stadium lights and startled players and spectators at what was to have been a game with Servite High School. The game was canceled after the lightning.

“In 24 years of living in Ohio, that was the closest I’ve ever come to being hit by lightning,” said game official Paul Siskowic, adding that he felt the metal tip of his pencil singe his hand.

As of 7:47 p.m., computers showed that 38 lightning strikes had occurred on land in the county, with 11 additional strikes offshore, Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department said.

The region’s surprise display of lightning, thunder and rain began about 2:30 p.m. in South County coastal areas and quickly moved inland. By 7 p.m., the storm had spread over much of the county.

According to the National Weather Service, the most rain recorded was the 0.05 of an inch that fell in San Juan Capistrano. Santa Ana got 0.03 of an inch, according to the city Fire Department.

Young said that afternoon squalls caused a few traffic accidents, as many as three small brush fires and an unwelcome jamming of the County Fire Department’s emergency 911 lines.

“One of the biggest problems we’ve had is people calling 911, asking what’s happening,” Young said. “Very few were actual emergencies. . . . It sounds like the community came a bit unglued for a period of time.”

Young said that in Mission Viejo, two cars collided head-on at El Toro Road and Summerwood Way, leaving three people hospitalized. A nursing supervisor at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo said the most seriously injured of the three suffered facial fractures and was in serious condition. The others, who were in the other car, were in good condition.

Firefighters were able to quickly douse the several lightning-caused fires, including one in remote, brush-covered land about a mile northeast of Oso and San Felipe roads near Mission Viejo, Young said. The largest of the blazes burned about half an acre, he said.

Young said two tree fires were put out in Laguna Hills, within the Leisure World complex.

National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Entrekin said Thursday’s storm occurred after a trough of unstable air resting off the coast was pushed ashore locally by strong, southwest winds descending from 30,000 feet and above.

“With already unstable, moist air in place,” Entrekin said, “this other feature (the winds) has helped pop out the storms. It’s unusual for here, especially to have thunderstorms forming off the coast. Usually, it’s the other way around. The thunderstorms form over the mountains and move toward the ocean.”

The Weather Service predicts partly cloudy skies with a chance of lingering showers and thunderstorms today. High temperatures are expected to be in the 70s to mid-80s.

In Laguna Beach, chief lifeguard Mike Dwinell, who had a clear vantage point during Thursday’s late-afternoon storm, described “westerly squall lines coming across from the ocean. . . . It’s interesting. It feels tropical.”

Times staff writers Tom Hamilton, Len Hall and Frank Messina contributed to this report.