Thunder rattles Tahoe, more on the way

Updated 3;30pm:

The U.S. Forest Service is reporting five small fires, all located between Echo and Monument. Not one is expected to spread much before crews can get to them to put them out.

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It was a restless night Monday for many people in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin with all the booming thunder and flashes of lightning filling the sky.

Lightning in South Lake Tahoe on July 22. Photo/Brandi Ledbetter Brown

Unsettled weather is going to be here for the rest of the week until it clears out on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

Crews in Alpine County are working on a fire that started from the lightning. It is burning near Jobs Peak. Firefighters are hiking in to the east-facing slope above the Fay Luther trailhead. U.S. Forest Service crews are hiking to Timmer Peak where a small blaze started near the same ares where lightning struck a few weeks ago.

The rain was spotty throughout the region. South Lake Tahoe received 0.11 of an inch, Minden 0.07, and Truckee and Reno nothing.

Meteorologist Brian O’Hara in Reno said afternoon heat usually triggers the thunderstorms. It was an upper level disturbance that moved over last night that set up these boomers.

“There is still a chance of precipitation through the week. That system that is over us will be parking over the region for the next few days,” O’Hara told Lake Tahoe News.

Flash flooding is possible in many locations, he said, but mostly the Weather Service is keeping an eye on Mineral and Mono counties. However, where the Bison Fire burned in Douglas County is susceptible to mudslides because there is no vegetation to absorb the moisture.

 — Lake Tahoe News staff report