Weather News

200 thousand lightning strikes with lots more to come

Ben Domensino, Thursday October 17, 2024 - 11:15 AEDT

Thunderstorms were rumbling across six Australian states on Thursday morning following a barrage of nighttime lightning that produced more than 200,000 strikes across the country.

The video below shows the lightning that was detected over Australia during the 24 hours ending at 11am AEDT on Thursday.

Video: Lightning strikes over Australia during the 24 hours ending at 11am AEDT on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

Last night’s prolific thunderstorm activity was produced by a broad area of low pressure interacting with tropical moisture and an unstable atmosphere.

Weatherzone’s Total Lightning Network detected around 200,000 lightning pulses over southern and central Australia between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, with more lightning detected over northern and southeastern parts of the country.

One intense storm cell passed to the south of Broken Hill shortly after midnight AEDT last night, damaging the power line that supplies Broken Hill. According to Transgrid, it may take a couple of weeks to repair the powerline.

Transgrid teams are responding after a severe storm overnight damaged the powerline supplying Broken Hill. While a back-up generator has restored power to most customers, we expect repairs to the powerline to take a couple of weeks. @essentialenergy pic.twitter.com/0z8aPj41OL

— Transgrid (@Transgrid_AU) October 17, 2024

Thunderstorms will continue over a broad area of southern and southeastern Australia on Thursday and Friday and severe thunderstorms are likely in multiple states on both days. Some storms in the next 48 hours could become very dangerous, with squall lines, supercells, destructive winds, giant hail and tornadoes all possible.

In addition to the severe storms, damaging winds are expected to hit parts of SA on Thursday before spreading to elevated areas of Vic and possibly southern NSW on Thursday night into Friday.

Check the latest severe weather and thunderstorm warnings for the most up-to-date information during the next 48 hours.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2024

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