Rain Expected to Give Way to Clear Skies

The rainstorm that visited San Diego Tuesday spawned a waterspout in Oceanside and lightning strikes around the county, officials said.

On the waters off Oceanside, the waterspout, or water-tornado, started at about 9:40 a.m., and lasted for about 10 minutes, said Wilbur Shigehara of the National Weather Service. The vortex extended from the ocean to the cloud overhead and could be seen for miles, he said.

The waterspout caused no damage, the weather service said.

The weather service also received reports of lightning striking around downtown San Diego from 7 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. The lightning caused no damage downtown, but did cause power outages south of the city.

At 8:15 a.m. a bolt of lightning found its way to an electric pole in an alley behind the 300 block of Zenith Street in south Chula Vista, a spokesman said.

“One lightning strike in Chula Vista knocked out 2,600 customers, initially,” said Fred Vaughn, a spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric. “We got most of those customers back fairly rapidly. Everyone had power restored at 11:45 a.m.”

There were also reports of lightning in Rancho Bernardo, the weather service said.

The storm that caused the waterspout and lightning originated north of the Hawaiian Islands, and was expected to linger through this morning, Shigehara said. When the clouds finally clear late this afternoon, it will provide a brief respite, since a storm from the Gulf of Alaska is expected to arrive by Thursday, Shigehara said.

Before the storm leaves it should drop a quarter of an inch of rain near downtown, about half an inch inland and about an inch in the mountains, Shigehara said.

Highs in all areas but the mountains will be from 63 to 73 degrees today, the weather service said. Lows on the coast and in the coastal inland are expected to be in the low 50s. Desert lows will be in the 40s.

The mountains will have a high today of 53 and a low near 40, Shigehara said.