It's not quite the righttime to debunk that myth about lightning never striking the same place twice, as an enormous bolt has set a new global record.
The longest single flash of lightning has been captured by satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recorded and announced by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday.
The "megaflash" stretched 768 kilometres (give or take 8 kilometres) or 477.2 miles (give or take 5 miles) across parts of the southern U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi on April 29, 2020.
Satellite image of the lightning flash over the southern United States on Apr. 29, 2020.Credit: WMOThe flash in question measures as long as the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio. Or if you want another, between London and Hamburg.
Tweet may have been deleted
The previous record was 60 kilometres shorter, recorded across the sky in southern Brazil on (fittingly) Halloween in 2018.
It's actually one of two records broken, with the greatest duration for a single lightning flash of 17.102 seconds (give or take 0.002 seconds) recorded in thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina on June 18, 2020. This lengthy flash broke the previous record by a mere 0.37 seconds, also measured over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019.
Count out 17 seconds right now, I'll wait.
Satellite image of the lightning flash over Uruguay and Argentina on June 18, 2020.Credit: WMOThe new records were captured by NOAA's latest GOES-16/17 satellites which use geostationary lightning mappers (GLMs) to monitor extreme lightning continuously over the western hemisphere up to 55⁰ latitude.
SEE ALSO:The essential thing to know about NASA and NOAA's global warming newsThe findings were published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society on Tuesday by the WMO's Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes, which keeps the organisation's records of global extremes associated with different weather types.
"These extremely large and long-duration lightning events were not isolated but happened during active thunderstorms," committee member Ron Holle said in a press statement. "Any time there is thunder heard it is time to reach a lightning-safe place.”
If the WMO isn't cranking up AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" today, they're doing it wrong.
(责任编辑：時尚)
Plane makes emergency landing after engine rips apart during flight
How to delete your Zoom account
Juneteenth is now an official federal holiday
The best smartphones of 2021 (so far)
Tyler, the Creator helped Frank Ocean celebrate 'Blonde' release in a delicious wayNew Zealand designer's photo series celebrates the elegance of aging
Not only is age nothin’ but a number -- it can be a asset when it comes to style.
。 That’
...[详细]
If you've "cut the cord" with a YouTube TV subscription, but now you want to actually cancel YouTube
...[详细]How to delete your Zoom account
Even people who never used Zoom before 2020 are intimately familiar with the video conferencing app
...[详细]If you've "cut the cord" with a YouTube TV subscription, but now you want to actually cancel YouTube
...[详细]How Hyperloop One went off the rails
In December 2014, an engineer with the unlikely name Brogan BamBrogan was in the driveway of his cla
...[详细]Apple unveils iPadOS 15 at WWDC 2021
Apple revealed iPadOS 15 at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The latest update will br
...[详细]Indigenous community outreach jumpstarted COVID vaccinations. Can it get past a slowdown?
When COVID-19 vaccines first became available in December of 2020, Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief
...[详细]How to delete your Zoom account
Even people who never used Zoom before 2020 are intimately familiar with the video conferencing app
...[详细]This chart shows just how high Simone Biles can jump
American gymnast Simone Biles has dominated the Rio Olympics with five medals (four of them gold) bu
...[详细]'Cruella' has a great soundtrack — there's just way too much of it
Welcome toFixIt, our ongoing series examining projects we love — save for one tiny change we w
...[详细]