A amber Met Office warning for severe thunderstorms is in force tonight after dramatic weather hit the region the last couple of days.
On Monday evening, Greater Manchester experienced 'heat lightening' - which meant no thunder and rain - just sharp bolts of light.
It is thought to be caused from a distant thunderstorm which is too far away to hear the thunder.
An hour-by-hour forecast for Wednesday, issued at around midday, says Greater Manchester should avoid thunderstorms.
However the Met Office have issued a amber weather warning for severe thunderstorms across the North West region which could cause flooding and disruption in a few places.
The Met Office says: "Some places are likely to see further severe thunderstorms, with a small chance of flooding and travel disruption. There is a small chance that homes and businesses could be flooded quickly, with damage to some buildings from floodwater, lightning strikes, hail or strong winds."
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Have you seen the 'silent lightening'?
Greater Manchester has been braced for thunderstorms since an alert was first issued by the Met Office on Monday.
However, storm lovers have been without the crash and bangs that usually come with a thunderstorm and have instead been hit with silent, or heat, lightening.
The term is used to describe lightning from a distant thunderstorm which is too far away to hear the accompanying thunder.
Nicola Maxey, for the Met Office, said:
It’s not an unusual phenomenon. Light travels further than sound.
You sometimes see the lightning flash but you are too far away to hear the thunder.
Storm centring around Wigan
The storm is centring around Wigan at the moment - you can watch the live lightning tracker as it moves over the North West on our Facebook page here.
What forecasters are saying
Forecaster Greg Dewhurst said:
It’s not often we get temperatures this high over several days, and that is triggering thunderstorms across parts of England and Wales.
Severe storms could see 30 to 40mm of rain falling in less than an hour in some places, which comes after heavy downpours lashed large parts of Scotland and caused flooding on Tuesday evening.
If rain is falling on places that have been quite hot and dry, and the ground is quite hard, the rain doesn’t have anywhere to go, and from that we can see flash flooding.
What an amber weather warning means
According to the Met Office, an amber weather warning means:
- There is a chance that fast flowing/deep water could suddenly occur, bringing a danger to life and extensive flooding of homes and businesses
- Damage to buildings/structures from lightning strikes, hail, strong winds may occur
- If flooding occurs, road closures with long delays and cancellations to bus and rail services are possible
- Rapidly changing, dangerous driving conditions from spray, sudden flooding, standing water and/or hail might occur
- Power and other essential services, such as gas, water, mobile phone service could be lost
- Communities might be completely cut off, perhaps for several days
Current forecast for this evening
The Met Office says there will be isolated thundery showers during the evening which will die out by midnight, leaving most parts dry with clear spells through the early hours.
Mild and muggy with minimum temperatures of 17C.