Brief Rainstorm Causes Destruction

(Photo by John Palminteri of KEYT News)

By edhat staff

The Santa Barbara coast was struck by a brief yet mighty rainstorm on Thursday afternoon.

Complete with wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, the storm caused a bit of destruction through town. Edhat readers reported several trees had fallen with some power outages.

John Palminteri of KEYT captured photos of a tree that narrowly missed a Bentley luxury car and apartment complex near East Beach.

Off Highway 154, Santa Barbara County Fire Department Public Information Officer Mike Eliason reported a brief hail storm with lightning. Roger the Scanner Guy and Eliason both reported electrical transformers were seen arcing with fire crews reporting to areas with downed wires.

#CAStorm-A brief hail storm accompanied by lightning Thursday afternoon off CA Highway 154 near Santa Barbara. Numerous electrical transformers were seen arcing and SBC FF’s are responding to multiple reports of wires down. If you see a wire down, stay away & call 911 pic.twitter.com/VZ8ZQqgqIh

— SBCFireInfo (@EliasonMike) November 29, 2018

On Thursday afternoon the National Weather Service reported the potential for rapidly developing heavy showers and isolated thunderstorms over Santa Barbara County through the early evening.

As of 5:00 p.m. Thursday, official rainfall totals within 48 hours ranged between 0.61 to 4.74 inches in the county area.

As with every storm comes the sun. Eliason captured this photo of the clouds parting and a rainbow forming behind a statue in Memorial Plaza at the County Fire Headquarters.