THOUSANDS OF HOMES and businesses have been left without power this afternoon after lightning strikes across the country.

A Met Éireann ‘orange alert’ weather warning for thunderstorms kicked in at midday today, and will last until 9pm.

The thundery weather has been affecting the Midlands and Northwest areas worst. The ESB Networks Powercheck site showed significant outages of groups of hundreds of customers stretching from Donegal down to Roscommon and across the Midlands to Dundalk and Drogheda.

power ESB Powercheck ESB Powercheck

A lot of #lightning damage in the North West and Midlands please see https://t.co/VMtxFrW7FY for updates ring if NOT listed 1850372999
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) June 6, 2016

ESB Networks / Twitter

We have a large fault in the #Derrycramph #Bellahillan areas of #Cavan ert is 6.15pm see https://t.co/VMtxFrW7FY for updates Apologies
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) June 6, 2016

ESB Networks / Twitter

The thunder warning covers the following areas:

All of Connacht
Cavan
Monaghan
Donegal
Carlow
Kildare
Kilkenny
Laois
Longford
Louth
Offaly
Westmeath
Meath

There’s a further risk of thunder tomorrow, according to Met Éireann.

Read: Orange alert: A thunderstorm warning just kicked in >

Read: Passengers and crew injured as Malaysia Airlines plane hit by severe turbulence >

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