An impressive lightning bolt, with a record length of 829 kilometers, was officially recognized by the World Meteorological Organization (OMM) as the longest lightning.
The longest Mega-Flerger had 829 kilometers. Photo. Shutterstock
A spectacular lightning, with a record length of 829 kilometers, was officially confirmed by the world meteorological organization (OMM) as the longest lightning. The event took place on October 22, 2017, during a massive storm that took place in the Great Plains region of the United States.
This electric shock, known as “mega-full”, has spread over an impressive distance, starting from the east of Texas and reaching the city of Kansas City, which is equivalent to the distance between two major European cities, Paris and Venice, notes Agerpres.
The previous record, a mega-full of “only” 768 kilometers
Interesting is that this mega-full-fledger was not initially identified during the 2017 storm analysis, but was later discovered, during a detailed re-evaluation of the data collected, due to the Geostationary Satellite Goes-16, launched by the US National Oceanic and Atmospher of mega-flexion.
The validation of the new record was made by an international committee consisting of 11 experts from countries such as the United States, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Nepal and Israel. They carefully analyzed the data and confirmed the exceedance of the 768 kilometer record, which had been established in April 2020 and an official certificate in 2022.
It should be noted that, in the case of lightning measurements, there is an error margin of about 8 kilometers extra or minus.
The world meteorological organization points out that such lightning of impressive dimensions can greatly increase the danger of lightning, which are already very violent atmospheric phenomena.
Randall Cerveny, OMM rapporteur for extreme weather phenomena, explains that an electric discharge can travel very long distances from the initial place of occurrence. The phenomenon is sometimes associated with the expression “blue lightning”, a lightning that can appear in the clear sky, without visible clouds.
Other records related to lightning
We make a brief review of other flight records that have been validated by the World Meteorological Organization:
* The longest -lasting lightning was recorded in 2020, in Uruguay and Argentina, lasting 17.102 seconds.
* The most deadly direct electric shock was recorded in 1975 in Zimbabwe, where 21 people died in a lightning bark.
* The most devastating indirect impact of a lightning bolt took place in Egypt, in 1994, when a fuel leak lit by a lightning led by 469 people.
Fulfere mapping
In addition to its fascinating character, lightning is a major risk, being responsible annually for many deaths worldwide. OMM monitors these extreme phenomena through the world archives of the weather and climatic extremes, initiated in 2007 by Professor Randall Cerveny. These archives document records in temperature, pressure, precipitation, wind, hail and other extreme atmospheric phenomena.
Although the mapping of satellite lightning has become operational only since 2016, which limits the duration of the data available for the study, the specialists are optimistic that in the next ten years they will be able to identify clear frequency, intensity and distribution of these extreme electric shocks.
Michael J. Peterson, a US -violent storm researcher, stresses that this information will help understand the impact that extreme lightning has on society and developing efficient global warning systems.
