By Reginald Stanley. Posted November 15, 2023, 4:40 PM.

Southern California is currently experiencing several waves of thunderstorm activity, affecting large swaths of areas west of the mountains that previously were under little to no risk of thunderstorm activity Wednesday.

Inland and coastal valleys were hit by a wave of precipitation Wednesday that arrived earlier than expected, and quickly saturated the lower levels of the atmosphere that were very dry up through Wednesday morning. Thunder and lightning were first observed across parts of the region Wednesday morning at roughly 10 AM, along with spotty precipitation. Another wave of precipitation and slightly more intense thunderstorm activity arrived Wednesday afternoon, with major hotspots over Camp Pendleton and surrounding areas, as well as near Ontario in the Inland Empire. Southern San Diego County also experienced significant convection throughout the day Wednesday, with a large number of cloud-to-ground lightning reports received by the National Weather Service in that part of the region as well as northern Baja California. Localized flooding may occur throughout the region.

Thunderstorms and additional precipitation are expected to decrease somewhat through the night, although they remain a possibility. As of 430 PM, all active WeatherCurrents stations had reported measurable precipitation, as the main precipitation bands move through Southern California. Murrieta and Fallbrook were both already closing in on 1/3 inch of rainfall. Another wave of widespread precipitation is expected late Friday into Saturday.