LOS ANGELES - A California man died Sunday after being struck by lightning which also injured 13 other people at two separate locations in Los Angeles.

Authorities confirmed that these incidents happened during a series of rare summer thunderstorms that swept through southern California.

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Lt. Larry Dietz of the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office confirmed that a 20-year old man was taken from Venice beach and was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday afternoon.

Witness Steven Christensen said  he and a friend were body surfing and sitting by the beach when lifeguards began searching for a missing swimmer. They found the missing swimmer face down on the bottom. As lifeguards performed CPR on the 20-year old man, some witnesses saw that the man wasn't moving or responding at all.

A second man is also in critical condition after being hit by lightning on the beach along with eight others, including a fifteen-year old boy, who were all hospitalized.

Stuart Archer was struck by lightning when he was playing volleyball on the beach. He describes the feeling as if someone punched him at the back of his head where he felt the electrical current rush through the whole right side of his body as his calves locked up before falling over. He also witnessed his other team mates falling over right after seeing a big flash of light and heard a huge sonic boom.

Firefighters have concluded that a bolt of lightning hit the water where an elecrical current traveled, injuring swimmers and surfers.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Katherine Main said it appears that the victims were all downed by a single powerful lightning bolt that hit the shoreline at approximately 2:30 P.M. All those who had medical complaints were in the water or on the sand, and some were on the beach's famed boardwalk when the lightning struck.

In Catalina Beach, a 57-year old man was also hit by lightning while golfing and is now hospitalized but believed to be in stable condition.

The lightning strikes were associated with brief lightning thunderstorms coming from an unusual amount of monsoon moisture that was affecting the region. Some parts of the island experienced more than three-quarters of an inch of rain in two hours, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard. 

This weather disturbance has already moved to the northwest where a chance of storms in the mountain and desert area is expected by Monday.

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