Downpour dumps 0.22 inch on Ramona

A summer downpour dumped 0.22 of an inch of rain on Ramona Tuesday afternoon, with lightning hitting a San Diego Gas & Electric power pole on Dye Road near Southern Oaks Road, sending power lines close to the road and shutting traffic to through traffic while crews repaired the situation.

The afternoon thunderstorm resulted in hundreds of lightning strikes in the county, according to the National Weather Service. The electrical activity caused no reported injuries but set patches of vegetation ablaze in fields and on hillsides in such areas as Campo, Poway and Vista.

The conditions, generated by monsoonal moisture out of Mexico, extended from the deserts to the coast. In the mid-afternoon, the threat of lightning strikes led lifeguards in San Diego, Coronado and other locales to direct beachgoers out of the surf until the storm passed.

“It was pretty intense for a while here,’’ NWS meteorologist James Thomas said.

As of 3 p.m., the bands of clouds had dropped 0.32 of an inch in Barona, 0.59 in Campo, 0.12 in Rancho Bernardo and 0.06 in Alpine.

By late afternoon, the unsettled atmospheric system was moving out of the region to the northwest, making way for clearing skies.