Bolts of this size only became fully measurable with the introduction of satellite monitoring. (Image credit: Getty Images)
The World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that lightning that swept across five Great Plains states has set a new record for the longest lightning strike on record.
The “megabolt” traveled 515 miles (829 kilometers) from east Texas through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and to the Kansas City area of Missouri in seven seconds, breaking the previous record of 477 miles (768 kilometers).
The bolt occurred on Oct. 22, 2017, but at the time, its duration was too long to be fully measured by ground-based sensors. A new study using geostationary satellite data has finally documented the scale of the lightning. The researchers published their findings Thursday (July 31) in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
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Sourse: www.livescience.com
