Lightning and torrential rain wreaked havoc across Melbourne on Friday causing blackouts, rail disruption, house damage and the death of a highly prized racehorse.

A bolt of lightning struck and killed five-year-old gelding Sunburnt Land on a property just north of Melbourne, while a 46-year-old man survived a strike after climbing on his roof to clear the gutters.

The man was not seriously injured but “immediately felt tingling in his arms and lips and called an ambulance,” paramedic Andrew Coffey said.

Sunburnt Land’s owner David Moodie described the gelding’s death on his farm at Romsey as freakish.

“It is unbelievable – a million to one chance,” Moodie said.

“There are 120 horses and 180 head of cattle on the place and the lightning hits him.”

The gelding had won eight races and prizemoney of around A$380,000.

The SES received 15 calls for help during the deluge, one from Hampton where chimney on a family home came crashing down after being struck by lightning about 7am.

Weather bureau meteorologist James Taylor said the storm was at its peak between 6.30am and 7.30am (AEDT) leaving Melbourne commuters struggling to get to work after lightning and heavy rain disrupted services throughout the rail network.

Connex spokesman John Rees said lightning hit a signal panel at Sunshine, on the Sydenham line in northern Melbourne just before peak hour, causing chaos on metropolitan and regional services.

Rees said there was widespread disruption right across the system.

About 25,000 homes across the eastern, south-eastern and northern suburbs lost power after a lightning strike damaged the network about 6.30am (AEDT).

Power supplier Jemena spokesman Scott Parker said most homes were reconnected within an hour.

The heavy rain and traffic light outages also brought traffic to a crawl across the city.

“It was moving quite quickly at 115 km/h and we had quite extensive shower activity,” he said.

The biggest rainfall was recorded at Werrimull in the north west of the state with 20 millimetres and 11 millimetres at Tullamarine.

The wild weather continued into the east of the state but Taylor said only light showers were expected in Melbourne.