After being battered with more than 100,000 lightning strikes on the afternoon of Monday till midnight, emergency crews are racing overtime to restore power in most of South Australia, which have left tens of thousands without electricity, in time for the highly-anticipated Melbourne Cup today.

"We are aware that it is Melbourne Cup day today and we will be working flat out to restore power to customers, but the reality is that some customers may well have to make alternative arrangements to see the big race," Paul Roberts, spokesman of SA Power Networks, said in a statement.

The company has reinstated electricity to more than 80,000 customers on Monday. It still needs to return power supply to 6,000 others. Customers who spent the night without power were those in country SA, including the Eyre Peninsula, Yorke Peninsula, the mid-north, Mt Lofty Ranges, southern Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.

"It was the most lightning strikes across South Australia and Adelaide in many, many years," Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dupschke was quoted by The Islander.

"On top of it, the storms were fairly gusty, knocking out power stations and sparking fires ... it was a messy day and evening."

Mr. Roberts seconded the observation, describing the occurrence as an "extensive and violent lightning storm."

"It's left a widespread and extensive amount of damage to the electricity network," he said.

If it's for any consolation, the lightning storms in South Australia on Monday did not bring much rainfall.

"There were several lines of thunderstorms but they were fairly fast moving so they didn't bring a lot rain, generally under 10mm," said Mr Dupschke.

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