Monsoonal weather conditions lash out--Weather warnings include flash flood watch, threat of hail for I-15 corridor; hot weather

SAN DIEGO - Towering thunderheads generated by hot, sticky monsoonal conditions out of Mexico lashed eastern San Diego County today with heavy cloudbursts and lightning strikes that set a spate of brush fires.

The heavy clouds built up through the morning over the region's highlands before letting loose with strong showers and electrical storms in the mid-afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

Starting about 2 p.m., lightning sparked brush fires in remote locales near Warner Springs, Scissors Crossing and San Felipe. The latter was the most serious, blackening roughly 100 acres...