Severe thunderstorms tracked over the Northern Territory's western Top End early on Thursday morning, putting on a spectacular light show and causing the heaviest rain in ten months for some areas.

An intense thunderstorm moving from east to west passed over Darwin shortly after 4am on Thursday, following a number of smaller storms across the region earlier in the night.

The largest storm of the night produced wind gusts of 60-70km/h in the Darwin region at around 4am and delivered 32mm of rain between 4am and 5am at the airport.

There were more than 4000 lightning strikes detected within a 50km radius of Darwin between 10 o'clock last night and 6am today, with nearly 1000 of these occurring as cloud-to-ground strikes.

Darwin's 73.2mm of rain as of 9am on Thursday, which came from multiple showers and storms overnight, was its highest daily total since January and half of the city's entire monthly average at this time of year.

Darwin's running monthly total is now 132mm, which is close to its long-term November average of 142mm.

Thunderstorms are possible in Darwin again this afternoon and tonight. Visit http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp for the latest warnings.