A powerful lightning storm lit up parts of San Diego County late Thursday, and the National Weather Service followed with a severe thunderstorm warning for East County and nearby mountain areas. Doppler radar found a strong thunderstorm at 10:36 pm PDT near Interstate 8 between Boulevard and the Imperial County line, moving west at about 20 mph.
The warning stayed in effect until 11:15 pm PDT and covered Boulevard, Campo, Jacumba, Live Oak Springs, Tierra del Sol, southern Mount Laguna, and parts of the La Posta, Campo and Manzanita Indian Reservations. Portions of Highway S2 and Interstate 8 were also included, putting drivers and nearby residents in the path of a storm that could still put out 50 mph wind gusts and marble-sized hail up to 0.5 inches, big enough to dent soft surfaces and strip leaves from vegetation.
That made the storm more than a light show, even as it spread quickly across social media. A 43-minute uncut video from Shelter Island showed the sky flashing in intervals, and other clips posted on X, Instagram and elsewhere captured repeated strikes across the region. One Facebook user said the lightning was cool to watch from a distance because lightning and humidity are rare there, but the warning carried a different message: gusty winds could bring down tree limbs, blow unsecured outdoor objects and leave minor damage to vegetation in their wake.
Meteorologist Chris Nunley said storms were developing over the Southern California Mountains on Thursday afternoon, and he posted a radar image at 2:35 pm showing that setup taking shape well before the warning went out. That matters because the storm pattern was not a one-off burst; it was part of a developing system that had already begun building hours earlier and was still active when the warning expired.
What remains unanswered is whether the lightning and hail actually caused damage, outages or injuries in the warned area. For now, the facts point to a fast-moving late-night storm that looked dramatic from a distance but carried enough wind and hail risk to make it a real threat on the ground.
