SCOTLAND was hit by 25,000 lightning bolts as the country’s heatwave finished with a bang on Wednesday.
While parts of the country baked in 29C heat during the day, the hot weather continued through the night with lows of 19C.
The humid conditions saw Scotland and surrounding seas hit by around 20,000 of the 39,302 lightning strikes between 3pm Tuesday to 10am on Wednesday.
Ninety per cent of the strikes came in a six-hour blast from 4am to 10am on Wednesday, Met Office UK area lightning detection system data passed to Netweather showed.
Met Office figures showed 25,000 lighting strikes is 10 times higher than the usual number of strikes from a lightning storm.
The 25,000 bolts contained 6million kWh of energy – enough to boil water for 225million cups of tea or provide the daily energy needs of 500,000 people – or the population of Edinburgh – University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Ofgem data showed.
A dramatic lightning location map showed Scotland almost invisible under the strikes.
Another 5,000 strikes in Scotland were forecast by Netweather by Wednesday evening.
Met Office forecaster Alex Burkill said: “There was so much frequent lightning due to so much energy in the air. Impacts were expected by Wednesday evening.”
Netweather forecaster Paul Michaelwhite said: “Extremely severe lightning made it one of the most memorable lightning episodes for years.”
MeteoGroup said Tuesday night did not fall below 19.1C near Lanark – just under Scotland’s 20.5C hottest night ever, set on August 2, 1995 at Creebridge, Wigtownshire.
On Tuesday night, temperatures were still 23C at 11pm at Paisley, Glasgow, Ayr, Campbeltown and Stranraer, STV weather presenter Sean Batty said.
Mr Burkill said: “Night temperatures were the same as daytime average temperatures for July. It was a very uncomfortable night.”
MeteoGroup said: “It was an exceptional night for temperatures in the UK.”
Original Article:http://www.scotlandnow.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scotland-hit-25000-lightning-bolts-8456503
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