Storm lights up the night as it moves through Stanislaus

Lightning put on a great show in parts of Stanislaus County on Monday night. Thankfully, the storm that brought it did little damage.

The National Weather Service warned shortly after 8 p.m. of a strong storm moving through southwest Stanislaus County that could produce winds of up to 50 mph, nickel-size hail and frequent lightning. Residents were advised to take cover.

Tuesday morning, public-safety officials reported that the area was pretty much unscathed. "We actually had no (power) outages last night at all," Turlock Irrigation District spokesman Calvin Curtin said.

And Dale Skiles, Stanislaus County fire warden and Office of Emergency Services director, said he'd heard of no calls for response related to the storm. He did speak with fire officials in Santa Clara County, Stanislaus' neighbor to the west, about fire activity there, but that county didn't request aid.

In Modesto, at least one person, Amanda Indy King, had a tree topple. But others who posted on The Bee's Facebook page indicated they enjoyed watching the storm.

"Didn't see much rain at all but one hell of a lightning show!" said Stephanie Gonzalez of Turlock.

"Loved it! Dry lightning lit up the sky — a bit of rain, and it felt great!" posted Stacey Khangaldian, also of Turlock.

Another Turlocker, Johneen JJ Lear, was disappointed the storm was there and gone within about 10 minutes. "I loved it. Bring on more," she said.

And Tiffany Rossi wrote how pretty it was in Riverbank. "Loved the rain — felt so fresh," she said.

The weather service's Sacramento office posted on Facebook that more than 6,700 lightning strikes were detected across the state Monday.

The Tuesday forecast for the Modesto area includes a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, rising to a 30 percent chance at night, mainly before 11 p.m.

The chance of showers and thunderstorms carries into Wednesday morning. After that, the day should be mostly sunny, with a high temperature near 86.

After Monday's anticipated high near 91, cooler days should continue the rest of the week. Thursday's high should be near 80, Friday's near 84, Saturday's near 84.

This story was originally published September 12, 2017 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Storm lights up the night as it moves through Stanislaus."