Benjamin Burmood, 22, of Lodi sits on the porch of his 400 block West Elm Street home playing his guitar as the rain falls Thursday. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Lightning blasts palm tree, utility pole in Lodi

Lightning struck a 40-foot palm tree on Kenway Court in Lodi on Thursday as a thunderstorm moved through the area.

Lightning is also suspected as the cause of a utility pole fire shortly after 5 p.m. at Lodi Avenue and Beckman Road.

In Galt, a power failure affecting 300 to 1,000 electrical customers took place Thursday afternoon.

Lodi firefighters and a city of Lodi Public Works crew were sent to the palm tree fire on Kenway Court, northwest of Lodi and Mills avenues, at 1:49 p.m. and spent 45 minutes to an hour putting out the fire, Tecklenburg said.

"You could see a smoke column," Tecklenburg said. "This palm tree was 40 feet tall and it was burning top to bottom. It blew the palms right off it. You could see the spiral from the lightning."

The Public Works crew tore down the tree and firefighters completed dousing the fire, Tecklenburg said.

The Lodi Fire Department reported .08 of an inch at 5:40 p.m. Occasional rain and bright lightning strikes were seen throughout the evening.

The unusual thunderstorm was caused by subtropical moisture from the Gulf of California colliding with a low-pressure system from the Central Coast, said Ken Clark, a meteorologist for AccuWeather. The storm hit the Southern California mountain and desert areas, and Las Vegas was flooded Tuesday, Clark said.

"It breaks the monotony of the summertime," Clark said.

Tecklenburg said thunder, lightning and rain hit the Lodi area about 12:30 p.m.

"It's something you usually don't see too often, especially in this town," he said.

The mid-afternoon thunderstorm may also have been responsible for the power pole blaze just east of Highway 99, Lodi Fire Engineer Amy Dalrymple said.

Firefighters were called to the blaze shortly after 5 p.m.

It appeared that lightning hit a thick metal bolt that went all the way through the wooden pole, operated by Lodi Electric and Pacific Gas and Electric Co, Dalrymple said.

After two or three hours, the metal bolt, located halfway up the pole, heated up considerably and conducted electricity in the process, Dalrymple said.

"It burned a pretty good chunk out of it," she said. "It was a pretty good lightning storm."

Dalrymple, Engineer Grant Gibson and firefighters Buck Quaglia and Emilio Cahue spent about two hours putting the fire out and making sure it didn't rekindle, Dalrymple said. The entire pole will have to be replaced, she said.

In Galt, between 300 and 1,000 customers lost power in the mid-afternoon, probably caused by lightning, said Robert Tokunaga, a spokesman for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. About 300 remained without power in Galt at 5 p.m. Thursday, Tokunaga said.

Tokunaga didn't know what part of Galt was affected, but a Galt firefighter said he received a call about lost power in the Chabolla Avenue area.

Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, said Thursday's thunderstorm shouldn't cause any crop damage -- as long as there isn't any more rain.

Some grapevines are susceptible to disease if it rains during harvest time, Chandler said.

"The other lucky thing is that there was no hail," Chandler said. "Hail will scar the fruit and cause spoilage. It will destroy the leaves and possibly hit the fruit and start spoilage."

The ideal weather during the grape harvest is 85 to 95 degrees and clear skies, Chandler said.

"We're really at the front end of harvest," he said. "There isn't a lot of harvesting going on."

Scott Hudson, San Joaquin County agricultural commissioner, said the biggest problem is a few days of rain without any opportunity for crops to dry off.

The only possible storm damage lies with hay that has already been cut, Hudson said. But even then, it appears the hay will have a chance to dry.

The storm moved north and northwest into Sacramento on Thursday afternoon and evening, going about 20 mph, Clark said.

Thunder and lightning continued early today, but the forecast calls for partly sunny and pleasant conditions with a high of 83.