More showers Friday, then spring weather for San Joaquin Valley

A late-spring weather front that brought thunder, lightning and power outages to the central San Joaquin Valley will remain in the region Friday, the National Weather Service reports.

Rain showers were expected through the region, with the possibility of more thunderstorms in lower areas and snow showers in the Sierra Nevada. The low-pressure front is expected to clear the region by Saturday evening, bringing warmer weather with highs in the mid-80s.

Thursday night’s storm brought wind gusts up to 45 mph to the area and provided dazzling lightning flashes across area skies. Another round of thunder and lightning with heavy downpours rolled across parts of the Valley around dawn Friday.

Modesto Vasquez, a meteorologist with the weather service in Hanford, said thunderstorms in the southern Sierra are a possibility Saturday.

He noted the arrival of such a weather system in May is fairly rare for the region.

“It’s kind of unusual for the month,” he said. Thursday, the weather service attributed the storm to high humidity.