Lightning in Marion County, Florida

Broadcast media reported Marion County firefighters were called to a house fire on Southwest 115th Street around 8:19 p.m. The 911 caller told them the home was struck by lightning and the attic was filling with smoke. The roof caught on fire and quickly destroyed much of the inside of the home. The lightning caused a large hole in the roof. The family has been displaced. No injuries or fatalities.

Strong low pressure (991 millibars) moving across the Upper Midwest lifted a warm front northward into the Altamaha River in southeast Georgia. Deeper moisture surged northward into northern Florida in the wake of the warm frontal passage. This combined with a warm and unstable air mass resulted in scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms developing in the afternoon into evening along the inland moving sea breezes mainly south of the I-10 corridor. Cool mid-level temperatures, steep lapse rates and ML CAPE values in excess of 2,000 j/kg caused strong storms to briefly severe to develop in the late afternoon into the evening hours. The Storm Prediction Center had a Marginal (level 1 out of 5) Risk for severe thunderstorm development across the area.