MELBOURNE -- As they stirred to the sounds of roaring thunder, Melbourne folk would have had some idea there was wild weather taking place over the city on Monday night.
But only the next day, as images began to surface could they grasp the severity of the storm that led to power outages across the city and threw its transport services into chaos.
The electrical storm kicked off at around 2 a.m. and continued through to sunrise, with a barrage of lightning strikes illuminating the city skyline.
The freak weather event resulted in 26 millimetres of rain, Melbourne's heaviest rainfall in over a year, and led to flash flooding in parts of the city. Planes were grounded at the airport, while morning commuters were stuck in limbo as a power surge disrupted the metropolitan train network.
While most stayed within the comfort of their beds during the chaos through the night, some sprung into action to capture the spectacular light show in all its glory.
Spectacular lightning #storm in #Melbourne like firecrackers & drummer bands rolled into one http://t.co/Q46apiBM3e pic.twitter.com/bD2dUN7TWl— Erick Ramirez (@flightc) October 27, 2014
A photo I took of last night’s storm over Melbourne. #lightning pic.twitter.com/VhylmqTsyu— Josh McKinney (@joshuamck) October 26, 2014
Last night's lightning in #Melbourne. Incredible. pic.twitter.com/sMBFaGSTxM— MC (@mrmikechristian) October 26, 2014
Thousands of homes are without power in Melbourne after a wild storm http://t.co/xLyVPSCWvA Pic via Louisa Wright pic.twitter.com/YjuKg8ORlm— ABC News Melbourne (@abcnewsMelb) October 27, 2014
Watching the lightning storm last night from Frankston was amazing - 2am. #melbourne #lightning pic.twitter.com/44xnlp1lvS— Cory Williams (@corywww) October 26, 2014
Awesome shot of the lightning last night in Melbourne - taken by someone else of course! pic.twitter.com/X6rkcNd2Rc— Nic Hughan (@NHughan) October 26, 2014
Couldn't sleep - way to noisy. Had to capture this with Grace Chen using the Fujifilm X-T1. #Melbourne #lightning #melbounelightning #cityofmelbourne #seeaustraliaA photo posted by Leigh Diprose (@leighdiprose) on Oct 10, 2014 at 8:16am PDT
Last night there was a massive lightning storm in Melbourne. Here is a photo taken outside my windowA photo posted by Kimmi Smiles (@thekimmismiles) on Oct 10, 2014 at 6:25pm PDT