Video: Flash flooding causes mudslides at Bellevue housing development

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Mudslides, lightning and fires

Wild morning on the Eastside

3,000 lightning strikes in 24 hours

Lightning around Western Washington

Raw: Lightning in Kent

SEATTLE - A severe thunderstorm moved through the Eastside along the I-405 corridor Thursday morning, sweeping the region from Renton to Monroe with lightning, hail, strong winds and heavy rains.

The thunderstorm surprised a Bellevue neighborhood with a huge mudslide.

A construction project on top of a hill just gave way in the rain, flooding several blocks around the 7000 block of 169th Avenue SE. Fortunately, very little mud got into homes.

"It was an actual mudslide - enough mud to go into the street and move a car," said Eric Kenan with the Bellevue Fire Department. "The good thing to report is there are no injuries and no significant property damage, only landscape damage."

KING

A thunderstorm brought heavy rains to east King County Thursday morning, caused flooding in a house development in Bellevue.

It was just the latest event in a string of wacky weather to hit Western Washington the past 24 hours. Lightning lit up the skies as thunderstorms rolled through the Puget Sound region late Wednesday night through Thursday morning.

From Bellingham to Portland, the skies lit up Wednesday night. And people woke up as some of the biggest and loudest cells moved through the Puget Sound metro area around 2 a.m. 

That's the time when Cathy Smith was watching the storm.

KING / Greg Thies

Greg Thies shot this photo from the Issaquah Highlands as thunderstorms moved through area about 10 - 11 p.m. Wednesday.

"All of the sudden, there was this boom, boom! And I covered by ears. And something's been hit," she said.

The National Weather Service estimates close to 3,000 lightning strikes in Western Washington. They say it's the worst they've seen in nine years.

"It's unusual, but not unheard of," said Kirby Cook, who works in the science and operations office at the National Weather Service. "The last time we had an event like this, was in August of 1999, where we had a day where we saw over 3,000 strikes."

Lightning has already started two large fires in Okanogan County, and even more in Oregon.

Fire crews put out a number of small lightning-caused fires Thursday in the eastern Cascades, but experts say sometimes struck trees can smolder for weeks before triggering larger blazes.

Lightning, thunder, clouds and heavy rain showers were expected to gradually diminish Thursday afternoon, leaving just showers over the region for the Fourth of July.

The National Weather Service forecasts a continued chance of showers across Washington for the Fourth of July, with thunderstorms possible in some areas.