California does have some spectacular thunder storms, you are just not in the right place. Late summer go up to the high Sierra sometime. The morning will have clear blue sky not a cloud in sight. We kids while camping at Tuolumne would predict, “looks like rain”. As the day went on there would be a few clouds and then more and dark sky. Then a rush of huge raindrops and thunder and lightning. Hail too. After about an hour the clouds would blow away and we would reset our flattened tent and sleep well until, yes the next day we did it all over again.