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July storm sets SLO County records, knocks out power

July 20, 2015

CKSgUCpWcAAdqxW.png-largeRecord rainfall totals and power outages occurred across San Luis Obispo County over the weekend as rare July thunderstorms soaked the Central Coast.

Paso Robles accumulated the most rainfall in the county, totalling 3.55 inches by Sunday evening, PG&E’s John Lindsey announced. The previous Paso Robles record for the entire month of July was .59 inches.

Rainfall in San Luis Obispo totaled 1.4 inches, as of early Monday morning, according to the county public works department. Lindsey said in a tweet that San Luis Obispo’s previous record for July was .46 inches.

Both of the old records were set in the 1950s.

By Sunday afternoon, 10,500 customers in SLO County and Northern Santa Barbara County lost power, Lindsey tweeted. On Monday morning, 1,872 customers in SLO County remained without power.

The largest outages that remain are in Paso Robles and Templeton. About 2 inches of rain fell in Templeton.

Power went out in Paso Robles after lighting struck a power pole. Lightning also hit a power pole in Oceano, causing 2,823 customers to lose power.

The Central Coast thunderstorms were remnants of Tropical Storm Dolores, which was formerly classified as a hurricane.


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That was awesome!!!!! Morro Bay lit up! reminded me of the monsoon storms in the San Fernando Valley in the late 60’s.


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You’re right about that Ram! A friend showed me some pics on her facebook page today. Absolutely stunning! Lots of cloud to ground lightning. Those are the best.


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Flooded the backyard along with a little mudslide in Paso. Damaged the roof too – a newer roof to boot. The storm had unbelievable power.


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The good news is that the main well in Santa Margarita came up about seven inches. It is as though when the trees slow their drinking the sub inflow is able to recharge the basin. Suely this storm did not penitrate the dry ground to a depth of fifteen feet then recharged the basin up seven inches. Again Margarita does not have a water problem, we have a flooding problem just like Social Services. The difference is that when we fund Social Services, the word gets around generating a flood of people and when we fund Public Words to remedy flooding issues, we create a benefit that generates revenue.


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Corrections:1.) Surely this storm 2.) fund Public Works


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WOW, I haven’t seen this kind of lightening and thunder storm on the central coast ever. It intermittently thundered for 24 hours in A-Town and the lightening was spectacular. Glad there weren’t any hits. My poor pets stayed cuddled up to me the whole time while I reassured them that everything was OK. Today the weather is so balmy and humid that I’m reminded of my day’s growing up in a small town on the east coast where this happens all the time.


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I can’t complain. I can turn off the sprinklers for about 12 days.


Is this another small effect of global climate change? Almost every state (in the lower 48) will have 100+ temperatures this week.


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Got to admit, never seen anything like it here.


This was probably a once in a century event. Enjoy.


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Actually abc, we did have an event like this back in August 2007 when a plume of subtropical moisture was brought into the area thanks to high pressure over the four corners area. The only difference between that event and this was the little rain associated with it. The remnants of HC Delores had alot of the wet stuff imbedded.


Also, the temps in 2007 were much higher than with the weekend storm. I’m not sure of the exact date that August, but it was during the work week. It started around 9pm. It went into the next day early afternoon around 1pm before it started to die down.


I was living in Nipomo at the time and working at Camp Roberts. Had to be at work at 7am and I remember getting to the bottom of Cuesta Grade headed north and the temp at about 6:20am was at 96 degrees. Of course the beautiful lightning was awesome to see even driving. The only thing I missed was the loud awesome rumble of thunder after the lightning due to being in the car.


I love lightning storms and wish we had more of them here on the central coast. Unfortunately, conditions have to be just right. Whether it’s from the subtropical region, or with upper level lows during the winter.


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I watched that from the beach. Mostly it stayed out over the ocean. I don’t remember any rain from it and certainly nothing close to the almost 4 inches Paso got.


This rain broke every all time July record in the county. There’s never been anything like it.


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