Electricity From The Sky: DANGER!!

Thunder & lightning rare in these parts, last Sunday's murder-by-act-of-gawd at Venice Beach notwithstanding, as an expert told the Times:

Bill Patzert, a climatologist with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said an intense high-pressure system pulled an unusual mass of hot and moist air from Mexico and the Gulf of California to coastal areas, creating the unstable atmospheric conditions that produced the lightning strikes. Normally, he said, those air masses travel no farther west than the high desert and mountains.

“This was a sneak attack that took everybody by surprise,” he said. “Coastal Southern California is virtually lightning proof. Because it’s so unusual, people are not sensitized to the dangers.”

Patzert said the odds of lightning striking a person in California is 1 in 7.5 million. Montana has among the highest odds at 1 in about 250,000 but Florida is the “nation’s lightning champion” with 31 recorded incidents in 2011, he said.

And now, another exception tomorrow to prove the rule absolutely:

"Just about any location from the beach to the mountains and the Antelope Valley will be susceptible to isolated thunderstorms," the National Weather Service said. "When skies look threatening, move to a safe place.

"When thunder roars, go indoors!" the weather service said.

No hiking in the hills tomorrow either.