Sunny skies and warm temperatures will take us into the weekend. A strong ridge of high pressure will build over the west coast warming us into the 80s until the weekend when a low pressure center undercuts the ridge and drops us back into the 70s on Saturday with breezy conditions, and then the upper 60s on Sunday with a slight chance of showers. That low moves through early next week drying us out again and warming us into the mid-70s.

Yesterday Larry wondered if it was safe to fish when his fishing rod was arcing against his camper shell in unsettled weather, even if he didn’t see lightning nearby. I would have to say the answer is in unadulterated no! While there’s an awful lot we don’t know about lightning and its associated phenomena, there was definitely a lot of charge in the ground being induced by charge up in the clouds (which is how lightning occurs to begin with), and that’s just the situation you really don’t want to be in if you are unprotected. So if your hair is standing up or you see sparks flying, get inside your camper.

There are times when the conditions Larry describes are present in which phenomenon such as ball lightning will occur. That might’ve been cool to see, and it usually is not dangerous in and of itself. But it is indicative of an environment where more serious lightning strikes can occur. As always, discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to dealing with lightning.