‘We saw more lightning on the Avalon last night than we’ve seen in several years combined’ says meteorologist Eddie SheerrPublished Jul 31, 20256 minute readLightning drops from the clouds during a thunder and lightning storm. Photo by Keith Gosse/The Telegram Photo by Keith Gosse /Keith GosseArticle contentIn his 13 years of covering the weather in Newfoundland and Labrador, meteorologist Eddie Sheerr says he has never witnessed such an impressive and powerful display of lightning than what he saw in the skies over the Avalon Peninsula last night. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.Subscribe now to access this story and more:Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsSUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES.Subscribe or sign in to your account to continue your reading experience.Unlimited access to the website and appExclusive access to premium content, newsletters and podcastsFull access to the e-Edition app, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment onEnjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalistsSupport local journalists and the next generation of journalistsRegister to unlock more articles.Create an account or sign in to continue your reading experience.Access additional stories every monthShare your thoughts and join the conversation in our commenting communityGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorArticle contentLate Wednesday night, July 30, 2025, a short but powerful thunderstorm ripped through the Avalon Peninsula starting around 10 p.m., lighting up the skies in St. John’s and surrounding areas with one of the most impressive displays of thunder and lightning in recent memory. Article contentArticle contentArticle content“I was getting ready to go to bed and I looked at the radar and I was like ‘Oh my god’,” Sheerr told The Telegram.Article content“That was a lot of lightning. I started getting all of these pictures and videos and then I got a closer look and saw that this was going to go over the metro area, which is not a common thing for storms like that.” Article contentWith Environment Canada’s radar conveniently located in Holyrood, Sheerr says he was able to get a good look at the storm and the near-perfect system that created heavy rains for some areas, deafening thunder for most and surprisingly little wind for all.Article contentThose factors, combined with warm, humid Regatta Day conditions, allowed Mother Nature to flex her muscles and put on a celestial spectacle the likes of which are rarely seen so close to the capital city.Article content“What was so spectacular about this one was the amount of lightning that was in it,” Sheerr said.Article contentArticle content“The lightning was constant and the thunder was constant for the better part of an hour. These are storms you typically see sometimes in central and western Newfoundland and Labrador and over the mainland and in the Maritimes, but very rarely do we get a storm like that over eastern Newfoundland and on the Avalon Peninsula.” Article content‘THIS IS SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN’Article content Eddie Sheerr believes Wednesday night’s lightning storm showered St. John’s with over a thousand strikes of lightning, far beyond the Avalon Peninsula’s yearly average. Photo by Chris Ballard/The TelegramArticle contentBeyond being the most impressive display of lightning in recent memory, Sheerr’s Thursday morning research suggests that Mother Nature’s Regatta Day light show may have some historical significance. Article contentSheerr explains that weather tracking organizations collect data on the number of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that occur in different areas and suggests that the Avalon Peninsula sees approximately 900 such strikes per year on average.Article contentWhile the exact number of lightning strikes that took place during Wednesday night’s storm is unknown at this time, Sheerr believes the storm obliterated the Avalon’s historic yearly average, likely by a significant margin.Article content“There’s a very good chance that we saw more lightning on the Avalon last night than we’ve seen in several years combined,” Sheerr said.Article content“It’s likely the actual (average) is between several hundred and 900 strikes annually over a standard 10-year period. There were several thousand last night alone, I would venture to guess.” Article contentHundreds of Avalon Peninsula residents took to social media to share their thunderstorm experience with the masses, including many who were puzzled by the early, intense lightning that took place long before a drop of rain had fallen. Article contentSheerr says there’s a perfectly normal explanation for this seemingly strange phenomenon. Article content“Dry lightning is a thing,” Sheerr explained.Article content“When you get these storms, you can have lightning strikes and see them from far away at night. You can have lightning strikes that occur as far away as 10 kilometres away from where it’s actually happening… Lightning is very bright. As it flashes, it’s briefly hotter than the surface of the sun, so you can see the flashes from very far away at night.”Article contentArticle contentUpwards of 1,100 people joined Sheerr for a late-night live report on his newly launched ‘Sheerr Weather’ Facebook page to share in the thunderous wonder of this historically unique summer storm.Article content“That amount of lightning over this part of the province is extremely extraordinary,” Sheerr said.Article content“This is something that does not happen. The last time I can recall a storm that may have produced that much lightning was back in 2013 or 2014 and it was during the day… This was so widespread that almost every part of the Avalon saw lightning last night and the lightning over the metro was more than I’ve seen in my time living in Newfoundland. It was an extraordinary event to say the least.” Article contentUNUSUAL STORY FRO NEWFOUNDLAND POWERArticle content Newfoundland Power crews were kept busy through Wednesday night and into Thursday as upwards of 10,000 customers lost power as a result of a spectacular summer lightning storm. Photo by Gary Kean/The TelegramArticle contentMeteorologists weren’t the only ones with their hands full with Wednesday night’s thunderstorm. Article contentNewfoundland Power crew members worked through the night to restore power to upwards of 10,000 customers who had their service temporarily interrupted.Article contentArticle content“At peak, we had about 10,000 customers without power,” said Glenda Power, Newfoundland Power’s Director of Stakeholder Relations and Communications .Article content“It was certainly a spectacular light show, that’s for sure. We knew the storm was coming and we had our teams ready. Our control centre was ready and anticipating impacts, because when you anticipate a lot of lightning, there’s always impacts.”Article contentBy early afternoon on Thursday, Power was pleased to report that the number of customers without power had shrunk to nearly zero, save for a few small pockets of homes that required a little extra work to get their service back up and running. Article content“By morning, we had that number of 10,000 down to 250,” Power explained.Article content“Right now, it’s practically zero. We may still have an odd customer here and there out and work is continuing there. Last night, we saw a little bit of all kinds of different damage. We saw fuses, wire damage, insulators and so on.” Article contentPower confirmed that the single largest disruption took place in the areas of Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s and Bell Island, where a line failure resulted in approximately 4,000 customers temporarily losing their power.Article contentPower lauded her Newfoundland Power colleagues for braving the elements throughout the night to restore the electricity to these thousands of impacted customers.Article contentWith efforts already underway to restore power to the few who are still without power, Power was able to take a step back and reflect on Wednesday night’s impressive airborne pyrotechnics. Article content“I don’t think I’ve ever seen lightning like this, except maybe in Florida,” Power said.Article content“It was an unusual electrical storm for the province and for the Avalon region, therefore it was an unusual storm for Newfoundland Power in terms of what we were seeing and what we were dealing with. Our crews are experts in the field and they made quick work of the damage that was caused.” Article contentArticle contentMORE FALSE ALARMS THAN FIRESArticle content When he first saw the lightning on Wednesday night, the St. John’s Regional Fire Department’s Deputy Chief of Operations Paul Chaytor couldn’t help but worry about the risk of a forest fire. Photo by Kyle Reid /ContributedArticle contentWednesday night’s brilliant skyfire was the catalyst for an equally busy night for members of the St. John’s Regional Fire Department (SJRFD), but not for the reasons you’re thinking. Article contentAs SJRFD Deputy Chief of Operations Paul Chaytor explains, the fire department received between 30 and 50 service requests on Wednesday night, but just a single call to extinguish a structure fire caused by a lightning strike. Article content“We had between 30 and 50 calls last night and a lot of them were reoccurring alarm bells,” Chaytor told The Telegram.Article content“We did have one structure fire on Pilot’s Hill and two people were displaced in that incident, but that incident was cleared up fairly quickly. Crews got on scene very quickly and got the fire under control. Other than that, the lightning did cause a lot of alarm bell-associated issues.”Article contentArticle contentChaytor says he was lying in bed when the lightning first began and admits he felt a wave of anxiety as he thought about the damage that an errant lightning strike could cause if it touched down in a dry wooded area.Article content“With this lightning and our recent dry conditions, I was saying to myself ‘I hope there’s rain coming behind this’ because we all know what happens when lightning strikes the ground,” he said.Article content“If you have dry conditions it could start a forest fire or hit a house or building. All of those things have a lot of potential with these dry conditions.” Article contentWith just a lone lightning-related structure fire and no forest fires to report, Chaytor, like many across the Avalon Peninsula, was able to take a moment and enjoy Mother Nature’s jagged dance of light once his wave of anxiety and adrenaline slowly wore off.Article content“I haven’t experienced something like that since I was a boy really, not to that extent,” Chaytor said.Article content“It was pretty interesting, I must say. I would say a lot of people spent their nights last night watching the storm pass by.”Article content
Sky lit up at night: St. Johns metro area lightning storm could be one for the record books
