{"id":608165,"date":"2026-05-28T08:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608165\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T08:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:52:10","slug":"like-a-bomb-massive-storm-batters-greater-manchester-as-residents-report-insane-thunder-at-2am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/608165\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Like a bomb’: Massive storm batters Greater Manchester as residents report ‘insane’ thunder at 2am"},"content":{"rendered":"

People were woken up as far apart as Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan<\/p>\n

08:12, 28 May 2026Updated 08:21, 28 May 2026<\/p>\n

Thunder heard over Manchester following days of high temperatures<\/p>\n

Residents across Greater Manchester were woken in the night as a huge and intense storm battered the region. There were reports of intense thunder from 2am on Thursday (May 28), as far apart as Rochdale<\/a>, Stockport<\/a> and Wigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The storm comes after the Met Office placed a yellow weather<\/a> warning in across England and Wales yesterday (May 27). It covered large areas of the UK between midnight and 4am.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n

Footage of the strikes were posted across social media as lightning illuminated residential streets, disrupting sleep after days of intense heat. Heavy rain also fell throughout Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

There have also been reports of the storm in Merseyside, West Midlands, North Wales and Lancashire.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some residents thought they were dreaming<\/p>\n

One resident in Wigan posted on social media: “So, everyone else heard that loud bang at 3am too? What the hell was it?”<\/p>\n

Another, in Heywood<\/a>, wrote on Facebook: “It was so loud! I have never heard thunder as loud as last night I thought it was something else because of how loud it was.” A second Heywood resident added: “Nothing normally wakes me up but that did, looked out the window and thought I was dreaming.”<\/p>\n

Just down the road in Middleton<\/a>, one local wrote: “Early hours here in Middleton lightning first a few times then came the thunder .Hopefully it has cleared the air and got rid of that pollen.”<\/p>\n

Over in Stockport, a young resident told the Manchester Evening News: “I had left the curtains and windows open to allow cold air into the room after the heatwave, without realising storms were in the forecast. Overnight I was woken up by a huge flash that lit up the room. At first I thought someone was moving a car on the driveway but quickly realised the noise was actually heavy rain.<\/p>\n

\"Elevated<\/p>\n

“It was so loud!”(Image: Allan Baxter)<\/p>\n

“I then heard rumbling thunder in the distance, which must have carried on for hours, even after the rain eased. Now I’m shattered and running on around four hours of sleep.”<\/p>\n

And in Middleton, a local told the M.E.N: “I thought it was a load of people kicking my bins about – it went on for ages. It was so loud, like a bomb going off.<\/p>\n

“A lovely 2am thunderstorm waking them up is just what everyone needed after a week of sleepless nights thanks to the heatwave.”<\/p>\n

Prior to the downpour, the Met Office said: “Thunderstorms will continue to affect parts of England and Wales and are likely to become increasingly confined to northern and eastern parts of the warning area during the course of the early hours.<\/p>\n

“While many places will miss the worst conditions, where thunderstorms do occur frequent lightning and heavy downpours are likely. Hail and strong, gusty winds may also affect a few places.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People were woken up as far apart as Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan 08:12, 28 May 2026Updated 08:21, 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,2941,50,2437,2443,2940,56,1018,54,55,2448],"class_list":["post-608165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-manchester-weather","tag-news","tag-rochdale","tag-stockport","tag-the-met-office","tag-uk","tag-uk-weather","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wigan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}