Basin pelted with hail

Dark clouds that began moving into the South Shore Monday afternoon unleashed a wrath of rain, lightning and at least an inch of hail right around the time many ended their work day.

The thunderstorm moved into South Shore at around 5:15 p.m., knocking out power to both the upper and lower Kingsbury areas until 9:25 p.m. Stormwater drains overflowed on most streets and packed enough hail to fill a shovel. "This is great. I like the summer but I'm ready for the snow," said Irene Slezacek, 24, a Modesto Avenue resident who stepped outside her home to survey the storm after the hail and rain had eased.

The National Weather Service in Reno reported .04 of an inch of rain fell between 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. at the Lake Tahoe Airport and .28 of an inch at Stateline. No traffic accidents tied to the storm were reported to police.

Weather spotters in South Lake Tahoe and Stateline reported between an inch to an inch and a half of pea-sized hail, said Jon Bonk, forecaster for the National Weather Service.

The storm was a product of warm temperatures in the lower atmosphere that clashed with cold temperatures in the upper atmosphere, following a trough that moved into the Sierra via the Southern California coast, Bonk said.

"What effectively happened was the near surface atmosphere got warm, with the atmosphere above cooling off rapidly causing the thunderstorms," he said.

The thunderstorms were to move out of the basin early this morning, with partly cloudy skies in store for today, with a daytime high reaching around 56 degrees.