SEVERE weather on Sunday evening shocked many Fermanagh residents as loud bangs were heard, lights flickered on and off, and windows reportedly shook across the county, with the highly unusual cause of this disruption cited as 'thundersnow'.

The highly unusual meteorological event can only occur during a few months of the year.

Met Office spokeswoman Nicola Maxey told The Impartial Reporter: “Thundersnow is simply precipitation from thunderclouds falling as snow, rather than as rain or hail.

"Snow tends to muffle or deaden the sound of the thunder, so the thunder may seem loud but the sound often does not travel as far [as ordinary thunder], so is fairly localised.

“When thundersnow occurs at night, lightning appears brighter – this is because the light reflects off the snowflakes.

“Interestingly, the snow contained within the thunderstorm acts to dampen the sound of the thunder.

"While thunder from a typical thunderstorm might be heard many miles away, thunder during a thundersnow event will only be heard if you are within two or three miles of the lightning,” she said.

According to data from the Met Office, on Sunday, 14mm of rainfall fell, and wind gusts of 31mph were recorded.

For some in the county, there was a brief loss of electricity for a few minutes as the thunder rumbled away, but according to a spokesperson from Northern Ireland Electric, others had a longer disruption.

A Northern Ireland Electric spokesperson said: “Due to lightning, some customers in the Enniskillen area experienced a short disruption to their power supply on the evening of Sunday, December 27.

"In Arney, 64 customers were without supply from 7.40 to 8pm, and in Letterbreen, 18 customers experienced a disruption between 7.41 and 9.35pm.”

A wind turbine in Arney suffered severe damage as it was struck by lightening during the storm on Sunday. The wind turbine near the five points area of Arney provides electricity for the grid and is operated by Green Energy. A statement from Green Energy said: " TO COME"