A new world record for the longest lightning flash has officially been recognised by the World Meteorological Organisation at an incredible 829 kilometres in a notorious American hotspot.
The longest single lightning flash of 515 miles extended from eastern Texas to near Kansas City on October 22, 2017 has set the new record.
It is the equivalent distance between Paris and Venice in Europe.
To cover that distance driving, it would take a car eight to nine hours or a 90 minute commercial plane flight.
“Lightning is a source of wonder but also a major hazard that claims many lives around the world every year," WMP Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said.
"(It) is therefore one of the priorities for the international Early Warnings for All initiative."
She added that the new findings "highlight important public safety concerns about electrified clouds which can produce flashes which travel extremely large distances and have a major impact on the aviation sector and can spark wildfires".
The world record was recognised by the WMO's Weather and Climate Extremes Committee - which maintains official records of global, hemispheric and regiona lextremes.
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The WMO has updated its record by officially recognising an 829 kilometres lightning flash in the US
|WMO
WMO said there was a "margin of error of plus or minus eight kilometres (5 miles).
The record is 61 kilometres greater than the previous record - across parts of southern America - at 768 kilometres in 2020.
"The new record lightning flash occurred in one of the hotspots for Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) thunderstorms, whose dynamics permit extraordinary megaflashes to occur – namely, the Great Plains in North America," the WMO website states.
"Both the previous and new record used the same maximum great circle distance methodology to measure flash extent.
Satellite image of the record extent lightning flash of 829 km
|WMO
"The 2017 event is notable in that it was one of the first storms where NOAA’s newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) documented lightning ‘megaflashes‘ – extremely long duration/distance lightning discharge events."
However, the flash wasn't identified in the original 2017 analysis of the storm.
It was discovered later through re-examination of the thunderstorm.
“This new record clearly demonstrates the incredible power of the natural environment," Professor Randall Cerveny, rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for WMO.
Additionally, WMO assessment of environmental extremes such as this lightning distance record testify to the significant scientific progress in observing, documenting and evaluating such events.
"It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as additional high-quality lightning measurements accumulate over time."
Lightning specialist and committee member Walt Lyons said investigations of megaflashes provided "new insights into the mesoscale electrical charge variations in Mesoscale Convective System thunderstorms".
"Furthermore, it illustrates the threat of the newly recognized 'bolt from the gray,' analogous to the 'bolt from the blue' from isolated cells," he added.
"But one that can travel many hundreds of kilometres from the main charge generating region."