Lightning — Kern, California

2015-07-18 · near Greenfield, Kern, California

Event narrative

Autospy confirmed Bakersfield man was struck and killed by lightning. The individual was found unresponsive just before 7 PM PDT by a family member.

Wider weather episode

Tropical moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Dolores and a monsoonal fetch of moisture streamed into southern and central California during the time period. This brought deep moisture into the area which resulted in moderate to heavy rainfall across most of the southern San Joaquin Valley and nearly all of Kern County. Kern County estimates the cost of the emergency response and infrastructure repair throughout the Kern Operational Area to be approximately 2.7 million dollars.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.2596, -118.9877)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 600029. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.