A lightning mega-flash that snaked over three states in the US has broken the world-record. Mega-flashes are distinct from standard bolts in that they flow from cloud to cloud instead of being directed towards the earth. A mega-flash can travel for hundreds of miles, illuminating the sky for over 10 seconds.
The last time this occurred in the US was on the 29th of April 2020 in northeastern Mississippi, where a huge bolt of lightning spread across 477 miles/768 kilometers.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, the mega-flash recorded on Tuesday travelled about 37 miles/60 km farther than the previous record-holder which took place in Brazil in October 2018.
A certification issued by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society on Tuesday confirmed that the new world-record is set by the mega-flash.
Los Alamos National Laboratory atmospheric scientist Michael J. Peterson, principal author of the certification study, said:
"Lightning is a surprisingly elusive and complex natural phenomenon for the impact that it has on our daily lives. We are now at a place where we have excellent measurements of its many facets, which allow us to discover surprising new aspects of its behavior."
Although a lightning bolt hotting a person is very rare, it does happen. According to the National Weather Service, lightning bolts kill approximately 49 people and injure hundreds in the US every year. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that the worst single lightning bolt on record killed 21 people in Zimbabwe in 1975.
[Based on reporting by: The Mind Unleashed]
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