California Dreaming... of no Severe Weather

Or should I say, storm chasers under a cool, dry high pressure system in the Plains are dreaming of the severe weather they are having in Southern California this week?

Over 7,000 lightning strikes were observed between 9:15 and 11:15 AM Pacific time in California, with more than 22,000 since last night there and in Arizona:

Similar heavy lightning yesterday unfortunately spawned dozens of fires. Dozens of reports of high winds, lightning damage, unusually large hail, and flooding have been received by the NWS since Sunday night:

This morning's storm complex was clearly "visible" on the Visible satellite, looking like something you might see in the Midwest - a mesoscale convective complex.

More information can be found in our news article, which says that a water rescue was performed in Las Vegas this morning. Creek gauges are hard to come by in the area -- but a local gauge rose 1 foot quickly Saturday night and again this morning. The NWS's flood warning system could not be reached as of this writing.