A storm system brought thunderstorms to the coast Monday afternoon, to the surprise of some county residents.

Conditions were right to create thunderstorms in the county, said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Cullen, a relatively uncommon event for the region.

“Basically, we had a low pressure system, a storm system that moved up the coast just offshore during the morning hours,” Cullen said. “Behind that front, behind that system, we had some unstable air that developed.”

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While Grays Harbor Public Utility District experienced some outages, none of them were related to the lightning, said Ian Cope, community and government relations director for the electric company.

“(It was) not a huge impact as far as the lightning goes. We had three outages yesterday,” Cope said in a phone interview. “I think they’re all due to downed branches. We had a little wind blow through.”

There were two sets of storm systems that blew through, Cullen said.

“What we actually saw was a line of thunderstorms from right near Aberdeen, over the waters of Grays Harbor,” Cullen said. “There was actually two lines — an initial one about 4 o’clock and a second one a few hours later.”

Aberdeen was about the easternmost extent of the lightning, Cullen said.

“We had that line of lightning that was pretty prolific from the opening of Grays Harbor off to the southwest offshore,” Cullen said. “There was almost no lightning inland from Aberdeen.”

Lightning strikes are not unheard of in the region but are far from common either, Cullen said.

“Usually, in an average year it’s about 5-10 days that we see lightning,” Cullen said. “It’s not zero, but it’s not a lot.”

The conditions to create thunderstorms are much more common elsewhere, Cullen said.

“Thunder and lightning is definitely not something that I can remember seeing a whole lot of,” Cope said.

Rain is expected to return to the county on Wednesday, but without any lightning to keep it company, Cullen said.

“We’ll have another system returning Wednesday into Thursday,” Cullen said.

Grays Harbor PUD is ready for further wind and rain, Cope said.

“Thursday, I think they’re talking about 30-40 mph winds on the coast and more wind in the mountains. Our crews will be ready to go.”

Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.