Lightning San Diego lit up the eastern side of the county late Thursday, and the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning as the storm tracked across the area. The alert covered communities along the county’s mountain and desert edge until 11:15 pm PDT.
At 10:36 pm PDT, Doppler radar detected a strong thunderstorm near Interstate 8 between Boulevard and the Imperial County line, moving west at around 20 mph. Forecasters said the strongest cells could produce marble-sized hail up to 0.5 inches and wind gusts reaching 50 mph.
Boulevard to Mount Laguna
The warning included 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 inside the advisory, putting drivers on those routes in the warned area before the alert expired.
Chris Nunley reported storms were developing over the Southern California Mountains Thursday afternoon, and he shared a radar picture at 2:35 pm showing that setup. By late evening, the storm had organized enough for the weather service to draw a warning box around the eastern county corridor rather than leave it as a broad thunderstorm watch.
Social Posts and Hail Risk
Videos shared on social media showed repeated lightning flashes lighting the night sky, including a 43-minute uncut view shot from Shelter Island. One unnamed Facebook user wrote, "We rarely get lightning or even humidity here, so this is kinda cool to watch from a distance and nice to watch from the lanai! This slow-moving high-pressure system is bringing in some isolated thunderstorms." That reaction sat alongside the weather service’s warning that gusty winds could bring down tree limbs and blow unsecured outdoor objects, with hail also able to leave minor damage to vegetation.
An X post put the same mix of awe and unease more bluntly: "hey dows any body know who summoned the lightning demon to east county san diego. i am afraid." For residents and travelers in the warned communities, the practical line was simple: the hazard window was the period before 11:15 pm PDT, when the strongest storms could still produce hail and 50 mph gusts along the roads and foothill communities named in the alert.
11:15 pm PDT Warning
By the time the warning reached 11:15 pm PDT, the immediate question was not whether the lightning looked dramatic — it did — but how much actual damage the eastern county storm left behind. The available report does not answer that, so the only firm takeaway is the same one meteorologists put on the map: the threat was time-limited, area-specific, and centered on the storm’s active path across Boulevard, Campo, Jacumba and nearby roads.
