Around 19,000 households were left without power due to the lightning strikes, which were also a major concern to the Rural Fire Service.

Essential Energy Manager Community Relations David Crough said that the violent storm had kept crews busy right into Wednesday afternoon.

Just before 6.30am on Wednesday a lightning strike to a substation saw the majority of Nundle, Dungowan, Woolomin, Niangala and surrounding areas thrown into darkness, with 939 premises impacted.

“The Nundle zone substation was hit by lightning causing damage to network equipment which had to be repaired prior to power being restored at 1.50pm,” Mr Crough said.

A lightning strike was also responsible for a power outage to 963 homes in the Moonbi Kootingal area just after 7am.

“A lightning strike caused damage to a transformer, which crews isolated so that power could be restored progressively to 897 customers between 10.29am and 11.08am,” he said.

Severe storms have left 2601 premises without power overnight in the Tamworth region, after damaging winds and lightning strikes took it’s toll across most of northern NSW.

Other impacted areas include a long strip from West Tamworth stretching to Quirindi, as well as a small section of Werris Creek, although it was the New England that was hardest hit.

“Shortly after 11pm Tuesday evening, it is believed a lightning strike on the electricity network between Uralla and Walcha caused an unplanned power outage for more than 16,500 customers in Armidale, Uralla, Walcha and Hillgrove.”

“In conjunction with TransGrid, our crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to identify the problem and then progressively restore power for customers. Power was restored to Armidale and Hillgrove by approximately 12.20am Wednesday morning and to Uralla and Walcha by 2.45am.”

The New England also missed out on the rain, although the Tamworth Airport recorded 16.4mm overnight, the first decent recorded fall of the year.