Powerful thunderstorms consolidated over the D.C. area Thursday evening, releasing a dramatic and memorable outburst of thunder and lightning while also dispensing tremendous rainfall. Energized by stifling heat and humidity, it was the fourth day in a row of vigorous summer storms in some locations.

On social media, eyewitnesses described the jarring claps of thunder and the strobe-light-like lightning display as among the most extreme they had seen:

"[T]hat was some of the loudest, sustained thunder and lightning I've ever been through," tweeted Jim Groves in Hyattsville.

"I've never seen an electrical storm like this," tweeted The Weather Channel's Justin Michaels.

"I'm not prone to hyperbole but this takes the cake for the most intense lightning event since the derecho," tweeted WTOP's Dave Dildine.

The storms prematurely ended the Nationals home opener against the Yankees, as sheets of rain enveloped the ballpark and flashes of lightning lit up the sky.

The D.C. Lightning Mapping array detected 126,500 instances of lightning discharge between 8 and 10 p.m. From 8:21 to 8:55 p.m., there were nearly 3,000 lightning events within eight miles of Nationals Park said Chris Vagasky, a lightning expert for the Vaisala Group, which operates the National Lightning Detection Network.