Close to 150,000 lightning strikes were detected between Newcastle and Wollongong on Thursday night as storms put on a show above Australia’s most populated stretch of coastline.

More than 6 million people live between Newcastle and Wollongong and they all had a front row seat to a brilliant display of nature’s fireworks on Thursday night.

A low pressure trough interacting with a mass of warm and humid air triggered showers and thunderstorms above northern, central and eastern NSW on Thursday afternoon. The animation below shows the progression of the storms, which kicked off in the afternoon and continued well into Thursday night.

Several thunderstorm cells became very lightning active over central eastern NSW late on Thursday afternoon and continued into the night.

Lightning sensors detected 146,488 lightning pulses withing a 100km radius of Mona Vale between 4pm and midnight on Thursday, which covers the region between Newcastle and Wollongong and west to the Blue Mountains.

Around 10 percent of these lightning pulses were cloud-to-ground strikes, while the rest were cloud strikes.

Image: Observed lightning pulses withing a 100km radius of Mona Vale during the eight hours from 4pm to midnight on Thursday, February 17, 2022.

The prolific lightning from Thursday night’s storms was captured by amateur and professional photographers across central eastern NSW. Below are some of the images Weatherzone’s online community shared on social media.

Image: Lightning over Sydney on Thursday evening. Source: @ihaig72 / Instagram

Image: Lightning over Sydney on Thursday evening. Source: @sezavar / Instagram

Thunderstorms are likely to redevelop over eastern and northeastern NSW on Friday afternoon and evening, with storms once again possible in and around Sydney.