Mostly dry conditions are in the forecast Friday for San Diego County, but more rain is on the way Saturday and will continue through the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
A blustery autumn storm brought showers, cool temperatures and widespread lightning to the San Diego area Thursday and is expected to return Saturday.
The unsettled atmospheric system out of the southwest moved over the county Wednesday morning, and by early evening the inclement conditions had delivered anywhere from a few hundredths to seven-tenths of an inch of moisture across the region, according to the NWS.
The stormy conditions also included lightning across the region — including in the Lakeside area, where the Barona Fire Department reported that a bolt struck a power pole, setting a transformer and a patch of vegetation ablaze off Mapleview Street.
The bands of dark clouds brought spells of rain and electrical-storm activity to the region early Thursday, dropping a quarter- to a half-inch of moisture along the coast and in the valleys, one-half to one inch in the mountains, and less than a tenth of an inch in the deserts over the period, the NWS reported.
A second round of showers, more widespread than the first, is expected from Friday evening into the weekend, forecasters reported. Those cloudbursts will generate precipitation totals of 0.25 to 0.5 of an inch in coastal and inland-valley communities, 0.5 to 0.75 of an inch in the mountains, and up to 0.2 of an inch in the local deserts.
Saturday will be the coolest day of the week, with highs five to 10 degrees below normal from the mountains westward, and one to three degrees under typical seasonal levels in the deserts, meteorologists said.
Following the storm's departure, the region will experience a quick transition to warm and dry weather early next week, accompanied by a several- day period of Santa Ana winds, the NWS advised.
