Heavy storms over Salford brought blistering lightning strikes that touched down across the city on Tuesday night.
Hot and humid summer weather turned to rain and hail as the night wore on.
Fire crews were called to Sandwich Road in Ellesmere Park at 11.25pm on Tuesday to reports that the strong driving rain had flooded the basement of a house.
Crews isolated the electric supply and spent over an hour pumping water from the lower ground floor. No-one was injured.
From 10.30pm readers in their hundreds posted pictures and video to SalfordOnline.com’s Facebook group and Twitter feed as incredible thunderclaps set off car alarms while lightning bolts split the sky.
Multiple bolts of energy hit ground in Eccles and Salford, with live maps here showing how widespread the hits were.
Lightning strikes Peel House Eccles – @fromthebigchair
Watch: Lightning strikes with thunder so loud ‘it sounded like explosion’
Reader Kellie Gaskell sent in pictures of Cedar Place in Lower Broughton where the trunk of a 50ft tree was split down the middle.
Residents told how their windows rattled and flashes blinded them through their curtains in Eccles, Swinton, Weaste and Pendleton as the thunderstorm passed overhead.
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Forecasters were taken by surprise as storms predicted to miss Salford rumbled on for over two hours on Tuesday evening.
The Met Office say that by Friday average temperatures are expected to drop into the late teens from highs of 26°C last weekend.
Main image by Kellie Gaskell
