Do you know how many kilometers the world's longest lightning strike covered?

A photo of a lightning strike was submitted to the World Meteorological Organization's photo contest. Photo: Edward Mitchell/WMO

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recognized a lightning strike in the United States as the world's longest. The strike stretched 829 kilometers (515 miles) from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri, on October 22, 2017.

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The previous record for the longest lightning strike was 768 kilometers. It was recorded in the Great Plains region of the United States on April 29, 2020. This region is well known for its thunderstorms.

The World Meteorological Organization said that such an extent of lightning is not usually visible to the naked eye or detected by ordinary instruments. Due to the development of technology, it has now become much easier to identify such exceptional lightning strikes.

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Satellite image shows the world's longest lightning strike

Satellite image shows the world's longest lightning strikePhoto: WMO

As a result of advances in space-based mapping technology, it has been possible to identify such long lightning strikes since 2016. Thanks to this technology, what previously escaped the human eye is now being measured with precision by satellite. The new record-breaking lightning strike was one of the first recorded using the latest geostationary satellite technology from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Thanks to advances in technology, even the longest lightning strikes can now be detected. On June 18, 2020, a lightning strike in the skies over Uruguay and northern Argentina lasted for 17.1 seconds, making it the longest lightning strike on record in the world.

Source: The Guardian