SA hit with almost 250,000 lightning strikes while 22,000 lose power as wild storm lashes the state

SA’s skies were lit up with an astonishing 250,000 lightning strikes, revised figures reveal, as it was thrashed by winds of at least 130km/h and more than 40mm of rain. Send in your pics.

South Australia’s skies were lit up with almost 250,000 lightning strikes that left as many as 22,000 without power as a massive storm lashed the state on Thursday night.

The storm rolled in on Thursday and strong winds hit much of the state with gusts of up to 130km/h recorded at Port Pirie and Roxby Downs.

The Bureau of Meteorology initially reported130,000 strikes but SA Power Networks later revised that total, saying it had recorded almost 250,000 lightning strikes, with a peak of 400 strikes a minute during the worst of the storm.

Rainfall was sporadic across SA but Snowtown was the hardest hit with 44mm while Freeling had 36mm and Nuriootpa had 34mm.

The wild storm tore power towers down with Olympic Dam losing operational power overnight.

It’s been confirmed that both the Davenport to Olympic Dam and Davenport to Pimba transmission lines have towers down – two towers down on the Olympic Dam and five towers down on the Pimba Line.

A photo of the storm rolling in on Flahertys Beach. Picture: Facebook/Anna Horn

Lightning activity has slowed from a peak of 400 strikes per minute overnight and we recorded a total of around 250,000 lightning strikes across South Australia. Picture: SA Power Networks

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Mark Anolak told ABC radio while there was still some thunderstorm activity across the state – particularly in the South-East – conditions should calm throughout the day.

“There is a south-westerly wind change moving through and that is going to make things drier … by the end of today, we’ll see a marked decrease in shower activity so that by the weekend, we’re looking at dry conditions right across the state.”

At 9pm on Thursday, SA Power Networks said there were 60 outages affecting more than 22,000 customers.

By 8am on Friday, there were still 65 outages affecting more than 9400 customers. But that figure had dropped to 63 outages, affecting 5540 customers, by 10am.

Adelaide is in for a partly cloudy day on Friday with a high chance of showers and a possible thunderstorm in the morning, with more rain in the early afternoon. Winds will be west to southwesterly 20 to 30 km/h increasing to 35 km/h before tending south to southwesterly 15 to 20 km/h during the day.

Originally published as SA hit with almost 250,000 lightning strikes while 22,000 lose power as wild storm lashes the state