After two days of a brutal, soupy heat wave that felt like it would never let up, Toronto was graced with a brief reprieve of rain last night while under a severe thunderstorm watch that brought high winds, tree damage, flooding, and tornado warnings to other parts of Southern Ontario.

The conditions over the past few days spurred Environment Canada to issue a heat warning and even broke a 168-year-old record in the city before Wednesday night's intermittent showers came, and though the storm didn't hit us too hard compared to other areas of the region, one part of it was definitely something to behold: the lightning show.

Massive storm approaching Toronto (July 20th, 2022)#Scarborough #onstorm #toronto pic.twitter.com/w7wFg3QZ2P

— Luciano Stabel (@Stabel) July 21, 2022

The night sky was completely lit up by bright flashes behind the thick cloud cover, lending a very eerie vibe to an otherwise stifling summer night.

🌩#Toronto #storm #lightning pic.twitter.com/p49CrTo6Cm

— Koel Anderson (@KoelAnderson) July 21, 2022

Residents took to their balconies to watch, and some of the photos and video footage captured as a result were absolutely breathtaking.

Thankfully the #storm was not destructive in #Toronto and this is what we saw couple of minutes back. #onstorm #Thunderbolts #CNTower @CBCNews @weathernetwork @TorontoStar pic.twitter.com/37uyEm7LtE

— prathikjames (@prathikjames) July 21, 2022

The sky appeared menacing, with the promise of huge downpours that never really came in full force. Instead, we got spurts of showers that came on randomly and seemed to fade just as quickly.

It's a little bit #lightning-y out there tonight.#Toronto #CNTower #Storm #aerialphotography #droneoftheday #droneshots #aerial #dronelife #drones #dronephoto #dronephotography #torontolife #blogto pic.twitter.com/C7DJEquHpS

— Hehn Industries (@HehnIndustries) July 21, 2022

The lightning, meanwhile, was constant, continuing in bursts for hours.

Lightning show north of Toronto is wild. Every few seconds is a flash. #Toronto #onstorm pic.twitter.com/59DCvoSfW2

— (▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿) Спиро Папуцкоски (AKA Spiro Papuckoski) (@spiropap) July 21, 2022

While some clips show it pulsing bright behind the cloud cover, others show it crackling across the entire sky, which looked extra cool from high up vantage points.

Stay safe out there #onstorm #toronto #Thunderstorm #lightning pic.twitter.com/SZ7kbXesfW

— Inna (@Orinfa) July 21, 2022

Footage absolutely abounded on social media, with people in absolute awe of the natural phenomenon.

In Toronto tonight with some crazy lightning 🇨🇦 🌩 pic.twitter.com/vm3XcuVWqm

— Steve Chenevey FOX5 (@stevechenevey) July 21, 2022

Words to describe it included "fun," "spectacular," "crazy," "amazing" and just plain "cool," with many happy they got a front-row seat to the action.

Last nights lightning was quite fun #Toronto #torontoweather pic.twitter.com/OXQLSlhjCK

— Kyle.Taylor (@livingbyyyz) July 21, 2022

It was definitely a rare and epic performance by mother nature, and it served as a nice distraction from the heat that is persisting into today — though to a slightly lesser extent, thankfully — with temps feeling like 34 C under sunny skies.