I think most of us can agree that the weather's been a little funny, especially on Thursday, especially for August. And while some rare thunderstorms were predicted because of this weird mugginess, perhaps not everyone was prepared for drizzle in the city and that thickness in the air that most people are only familiar with in Midwestern, Southern, and East Coast summers.

National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Canepa explains to the Chronicle that last night's weather was the result of some "monsoonal moisture" which is "rotating clockwise around a large high pressure area" over the entire west coast.

One of the results: the scary and bizarre "fognado" seen above in Santa Cruz Thursday afternoon. It's actually just an elongated, horizontal bank of low clouds being blown inland, as ABC 7's weather guy Spencer Christian explains, and it just sort of resembles a tornado. The video below is a timelapse which explains why it moves so rapidly.


And here's a video of some lightning in Discovery Bay, in easternmost Contra Costa County, last night.