Clark County gets ‘glancing blow’ from morning storm

Plenty of local residents woke up to a morning storm that generated hundreds of lightning strikes from the Portland area to the Cascade Mountains today.

The brunt of the storm system mostly missed Southwest Washington, generating 18 lightning strikes in Clark County, according to the National Weather Service in Portland.

“Clark County just kind of got a glancing blow,” said weather service meteorological technician Gerald Macke. “Most of it was to the south and east.”

The weather service didn’t receive any reports of damage in Clark County, Macke said. The lightning did, however, topple at least one tree in Portland and cause local power outages there, he said.

The storm rolled through Clark County starting at about 5 a.m., Macke said. It picked up steam and produced more lightning as it moved toward the Cascades.

While this morning’s storm system has passed, the threat of lightning hasn’t. The National Weather Service predicts a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms throughout the day and tonight in Vancouver. High temperatures are expected to land in the low 70s, before dropping to the high 50s tonight.