A lightning storm lit up the Southern California skies on Tuesday night, and one local fire official captured dramatic images of strikes over Santa Barbara.

Mike Eliason, the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, captured images of lightning illuminating the skies above Santa Barbara on Tuesday night and posted them to the department’s Twitter account. Eliason wrote the photos were taken from Stearns Wharf.

The National Weather Service said lightning detection reported “numerous strikes” over San Luis Obispo County, southeast across Los Angeles County, as well as over the Pacific Ocean. During one five-minute stretch Tuesday around 8 p.m., nearly 1,500 pulses of lightning were recorded off the coast, 231 over Santa Barbara County and 40 in Los Angeles County, according to the Los Angeles Times.