Scientists confirm rare 768km lightning strike as longest ever recorded on earth!

A massive lightning flash that lit up the sky from Texas to Kansas in October 2017 has been confirmed as the longest lightning flash in the world, stretching an incredible 829 kilometres (515 miles) across the Great Plains of North America. This record-breaking giant flash beat the previous record by 61 kilometres. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced the discovery on Thursday.

According to Science Alert, researchers detected this giant lightning flash using data from the GOES East weather satellite, which orbits 22,236 miles above the Earth's surface. This satellite technology enabled scientists to track this giant flash, which would not have been possible using traditional ground-based lightning detection networks, which only detect ground strikes.

"We call this megaflash lightning, and we're still figuring out how and why it occurs. It's likely that even larger extremes still exist, and we'll be able to see them as additional high-quality lightning measurements accumulate over time," said Randy Cerveny, a geoscientist at Arizona State University and the World Meteorological Organisation.

A megaflash that occurred on April 29, 2020, previously held the record for the longest horizontal distance, travelling 768 kilometres across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The rapporteur of the WMO's Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes, Professor Randall Cerveny, said in a statement."This new record clearly demonstrates the incredible power of the natural environment. Additionally, WMO's evaluation of the distance record of environmental extremes such as lightning is evidence of the significant scientific progress that has been made in observing, documenting and evaluating such events. It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and we will be able to observe them more as additional high-quality lightning measurements accumulate over time.''

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