A brief lightning storm over Salford and Manchester caught locals off guard tonight with epic thunderclaps that sounded like they shook houses to their foundations.
Lightning struck ground in the western parts of Salford, with Twitter user @fromthebigchair capturing this incredible slow-mo video over Peel House in Eccles.
@SalfordOnline got it on video too pic.twitter.com/Y6byCIgqFO
— Lawrence (Lozz) Duke (@fromthebigchair) June 7, 2016
Those who happened to be awake between around 10.30pm and 11.30pm on Tuesday evening may have seen a blinding flash as lightning struck ground near their homes.
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Reader Bree Hughes managed to capture it right, snapping this quick-fire pic over Eccles too.
These two images below, from live lightning maps at https://www.lightningmaps.org shows the points as yellow and orange dots where these intense bursts of superheated electromagnetic energy touched down, in central Eccles, near Worsley and Boothstown, over Swinton and north west towards Clifton.
Readers chatting on SalfordOnline’s Facebook group reported how many had their windows wide open because of the heat of the day and were shocked by the scope of the thunder.
Heather Fraser in Weaste had to wait around 20 seconds from starting filming this clip but was still shocked when she got a glimpse of the blinding light and heavy, rolling thunder.
And @barlow_mark caught this over Eccles.
@SalfordOnline #eccles #thunderstorm pic.twitter.com/yWJLeLEN8w
— Mark Barlow (@barlow_mark) June 7, 2016
Despite the opressive heat and humidity of the past few days, weather forecasters at the Met Office had Salford and Manchester down to miss the heavy rain and thunderstorms sweeping in from the west coast tonight.
By midnight the storms had passed overhead, leaving only a light smattering of rain.
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Main image: Lightning strikes over Peel House in Eccles – by @fromthebigchair [cropped]
