PHOENIX — Mother Nature's fireworks were on full display Wednesday as monsoon storms hit across Arizona.
It was the storm the Valley had been waiting for after a rather dry Monsoon 2019 tied for the fourth driest monsoon on record in Phoenix.
But it was the lightning that really stole the show Wednesday. Lightning photo after lightning photo and videos filled social media. Firefighters responded to several house and tree fires caused by lightning strikes throughout the Valley.
When it was all said and done, the Phoenix area experienced nearly 3,000 lightning flashes, meaning cloud to cloud or in-cloud, between 11 a.m. Wednesday and midnight.
PHOTOS: Monsoon lightning lights up the sky across Arizona
People in the High Country got hit with monsoon action too. Some even saw hail and heavy rain.
The state as a whole experienced many more lightning flashes. Between 11 a.m. Wednesday to midnight, Arizona saw more 97,000 flashes.
The total number of lightning strikes across the state moved up to 135,000 after Wednesday's storms. Through August 26, Arizona had only seen 120,000 lightning strikes since the start of Monsoon 2019.
But, according to the National Weather Service, that isn't a lot when compared to previous monsoons. 2019 has recorded the lowest amount on record through August 28.
"2019 is trailing far behind the previously least active monsoon (1991) by nearly 50,000 strikes," NWS Phoenix tweeted.
The average number of lightning strikes for a monsoon is 421,000, according to NWS Phoenix.