Thunderstorms rake C.O, knock out power, spark fires

(Update: Adding slide show, video; 10 fires staffed, all under an acre)

Intense thunderstorms rumbled north through the Cascades and Central Oregon Sunday afternoon and evening, peppering the region with lightning, thunder, rain and hail, sparking numerous small fires and knocking out power in the Bend and Prineville areas.

More than 12,400 Pacific Power customers in Bend lost power around 6:30 p.m. and most had it back about a half-hour later, with the rest before 8 p.m. A specific cause was not known but it was believed to be weather-related, company spokesman Spencer Hall said.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 utility customers in Prineville also lost power around the same time, while Central Electric Cooperative reported scattered outages affecting about 150 members.

By 5 p.m., Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch reported firefighters had responded to nine new lightning-sparked blazes along the Cascade crest, mostly in the Three Sisters Wilderness and west of Cultus Lake.

Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch said in a tweet around 9 p.m. that firefighters had staffed 10 fires so far on the Ochoco and Deschutes national forests from the storm that tracked northeast from the Cascade rest. All remained under an acre, the agency said.

The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning around 5 p.m. for southwest Deschutes County as a storm west of Sunriver was moving to the northeast.

A worker at Crane Prairie Resort on the east side of Crane Prairie Reservoir reported hail up to 1 1/2 inches in diameter fell during an intense storm, according to the NWS.

As is often the case, the dramatic evening weather was followed by a rosy scenic sunset on the High Desert.