🌅 The Longest Lightning Bolt Ever Recorded

SOURCE

World Meteorological Organization

WHAT TO KNOW

• The World Meteorological Organization has officially recognized a 515-mile lightning “megaflash” that struck the Great Plains on October 22, 2017 as the longest single lightning bolt ever recorded. The megaflash lasted for seven seconds and produced more than 100 vertical offshoots that struck the ground below.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The 2017 megaflash occurred during a major storm and extended all the way from eastern Texas to nearly Kansas City, covering a distance roughly five times that of the east-west span of the state of Massachusetts. Put differently, it would take you roughly eight hours in a car and 90 minutes in a commercial airplane to travel from one end of the megaflash to the other.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Megaflashes are lightning bolts that span more than 60 miles horizontally. The flashes are rare—experts say less than 1% of thunderstorms produce megaflashes—and are most often produced by large storms that have developed for more than 14 hours.