10,000 flashes of lightning: Hong Kong marvels at the might of an epic summer storm
Twelve hours of thunder, lightning and rain has the city talking about a night to remember
The city was hit by a whopping 10,000 bolts of lightning during an epic 12-hour overnight thunderstorm, with even meteorologists taken aback by the intensity.
Hong Kong residents were barely starting to cool down from the hottest July day in half a century when the Observatory issued a thunderstorm warning at 6.45pm on Saturday, alerting the public to seek shelter and get off high ground.
In more than five hours up to 12am, the Observatory recorded 5,905 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, most of them hitting Lantau Island and the New Territories. An amber rainstorm warning was issued on top of that at 9.55am, as downpours lashed parts of Hong Kong with more than 30 millimetres of rain.
[Video: Martin Williams]
The rolling thunder and intense flashes continued into Sunday morning, which saw another 4,095 bolts of lightning strike from cloud to ground.