The storm caused a series of short power cuts across a large area of the region last night affecting some of our largest substations. Lightning strikes cut power to 26,652 in Buxton at 6.58pm, 63,937 properties in Bolton at 7pm and 35,000 properties in Burnley at 7.23pm. All customers affected in these areas were restored by Electricity North West’s automatic systems within three minutes.

​32,302 properties in Nelson also had a power cut caused by lightning at 8.11pm with 13,000 restored within three minutes, and around 19,000 off for around two hours after engineers were required to attend site for safety reasons.

Around 1,000 additional properties also lost power in smaller pockets of power cuts across south Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and High Peak.

Chris Fox, control room manager at Electricity North West said: “Last night’s storm was one of the worst lightning storms we’ve seen for a long time affecting such a wide area. I’m pleased that our automatic restoration systems worked well and restored the vast majority of properties within a few minutes.

"Where engineers had to attend site in Nelson, they tackled difficult conditions and flash flooding on the way to restore supplies and worked through the night to ensure the system was back to normal as quickly as possible.”

Customers with power cuts can contact Electricity North West on the new national power cut number, 105 (or 0800 195 4141), or follow @ElectricityNW on Twitter for updates.