Sparking up in the western Hunter on Friday afternoon, severe storms began their track east, bringing heavy rain, lightning and damaging winds. A low pressure trough, fueled with moisture from onshore winds during the late morning, created enough instability to ignite the storm cells. A severe storm warning was issued for the Hunter Valley soon after. Singleton recorded 30mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am this morning, with much of that fallen within the storms. In a radius of 150 km from Singleton, over 31,500 lightning strikes were detected as the storms passed overhead. Newcastle was able to avoid the brunt of the storms, however did not escape the strong wind gusts associated with them. During the storms, gusts over 50 km/h were felt across the Steel City. The fresh gusts have continued into today, with 76 km/h gusts detected around 8am this morning. A building high pressure ridge along the NSW coast has pushed the storm activity offshore today. Lightning strikes are still being detected, however the storm danger for the Hunter has passed. Strong wind warnings remain in place and are likely to stay that way for today.