Merseyside hit by eerie thundersnow phenomenon during Storm Gerrit

Merseyside residents were left baffled by ominous, long and low rumbling noises late on Wednesday night as Storm Gerrit stealthy crept into the region.

At around 10pm, an unusual sound echoed across Merseyside, with people up and down the length and breadth of the region wondering if ‘War of the Worlds’ had arrived or ‘a freight train had crashed’.

The explosive rumbling shook some houses and left people extremely worried as they gathered in the street to find out what was going on.

Residents were relieved when lightening finally arrived and they realised the unusual noise in the otherwise eerie silence was a strange form of thunder, which was followed by a torrential five-minute downpour of hail.

It is believed the odd-sounding rumbles were an unusual form of thunder, known as a thundersnow storm, during which the snow or hail muffles the sound of the thunder so that it sounds more like a low rumble and not the sharp bang usually associated with thunderstorms.

Many residents took to social media to share their strange experiences during the storm:

• One Reddit user commented: “I'm in Southport and I could hear it.. it sounded like a bombing! It hailed super heavy for about five minutes and it just suddenly stopped.”
• Another said: “I'm in Aigburth Vale and it properly shook the house.”
• “It happened so quickly and weird though. Like it was deathly quiet apart from the repeated rumbling. The storm literally just stepped into Merseyside in the last 5 mins with rain, hail and wind!” commented one resident.
• Another said: “Massive boom in Wavertree. Sounded like an explosion at first and when we opened the front door we got the thunder and it started hailing. It literally shook the street though and  everyone came out.”
• “My thought was it might've been a freight train crashing/rolling over, it really didn't sound like thunder,” one resident added.
• A worried user said: “I was in the bath in Southport and I thought the foundation of my house was collapsing. Really eerie sound.”
• “I'm in West Derby/Knotty Ash. I thought it was an earthquake as some glasses rattled in a cupboard,” concluded another.