The lightning strike on popular Venice Beach in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon that left one person dead and 13 injured came in the midst of a thunderstorm that was highly unusual for the region.

Such storms normally miss the Southern California coast, but an unusual high-pressure system pulled in a hot, moist mass of air from the Gulf of California, which led to the lightning.

Scott Miller, an inspector with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told National Geographic that lightning strikes are "rare and hard to predict."

A man in his mid-20s died at a Los Angeles hospital after being treated for a strike that hit the water and the beach, according to the fire department. Thirteen people who were