【】
It's not quite the righttime to debunk that myth about lightning never striking the same place twice, as an enormous bolt has set a new global record.
The longest single flash of lightning has been captured by satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recorded and announced by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday.
The "megaflash" stretched 768 kilometres (give or take 8 kilometres) or 477.2 miles (give or take 5 miles) across parts of the southern U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi on April 29, 2020.
Satellite image of the lightning flash over the southern United States on Apr. 29, 2020.Credit: WMOThe flash in question measures as long as the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio. Or if you want another, between London and Hamburg.

Tweet may have been deleted
The previous record was 60 kilometres shorter, recorded across the sky in southern Brazil on (fittingly) Halloween in 2018.
It's actually one of two records broken, with the greatest duration for a single lightning flash of 17.102 seconds (give or take 0.002 seconds) recorded in thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina on June 18, 2020. This lengthy flash broke the previous record by a mere 0.37 seconds, also measured over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019.
Count out 17 seconds right now, I'll wait.
Satellite image of the lightning flash over Uruguay and Argentina on June 18, 2020.Credit: WMOThe new records were captured by NOAA's latest GOES-16/17 satellites which use geostationary lightning mappers (GLMs) to monitor extreme lightning continuously over the western hemisphere up to 55⁰ latitude.
SEE ALSO:The essential thing to know about NASA and NOAA's global warming newsThe findings were published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society on Tuesday by the WMO's Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes, which keeps the organisation's records of global extremes associated with different weather types.
"These extremely large and long-duration lightning events were not isolated but happened during active thunderstorms," committee member Ron Holle said in a press statement. "Any time there is thunder heard it is time to reach a lightning-safe place.”
If the WMO isn't cranking up AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" today, they're doing it wrong.
相关文章

Here's George Takei chilling in zero gravity for the 'Star Trek' anniversary
There's nothing like good friends, good memories and zero gravity to celebrate a milestone. 。In honor2026-03-15
'Eagle Flight' is the best virtual reality game to date
Eagle Flight。is the first virtual reality game to leave me breathless. 。Ubisoft's debut VR game puts2026-03-15
9 London tourist attractions that are overrated and uncool
LONDON -- As an American living in London, I’ve done my share of sightseeing. After several ro2026-03-15
Baby whose dad paid $40 to hold him is now charging for hugs
You probably heard about Ryan Grassley, the dude who was charged $39.35 for making skin-to-skin cont2026-03-15
Amazon's Echo made controlling music with your voice easy-peasy, but its sound quality could be a lo2026-03-15
Netflix is giving up on a major country
Netflix is big, but investors expect it to be huge. 。 A big part of that growth is overseas expansion2026-03-15


最新评论