515-Mile-Long Lightning Megaflash Sets New World Record
When a potentially record-breaking weather event occurs, it gets passed to the committee, where a panel of scientists and other experts assesses whether the event truly represents a new record. If the panel votes to approve it, the record is entered into the WMO's World Weather and Climate Extremes Archive. Michael Peterson, an atmospheric scientist at the Severe Storms Research Center at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, flagged the new record-holder last year while reanalyzing 2017 satellite data. Recording such extreme weather events can help us develop new tools to predict severe storms and understand their behavior, he says.
The previous record-holder, a bolt of lightning measuring 477 miles that struck during a storm in 2020, also originated in Texas. This is no coincidence, Peterson says. The south-central Great Plains in the U.S. represent one of few hotspots in the world for the giant complexes of thunderstorms in which these superlong 'megaflashes' are most likely to occur. These complexes arise when many smaller storms coalesce into one large system. The 2017 complex spanned all the way from Texas to Minnesota.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Megaflashes often produce cloud-to-ground offshoots along their length. In fact, Peterson says, the 2017 flash produced more than 116 subsidiary strikes during the seven seconds it lasted, from start to finish. A typical lightning strike is visible for about half a second; the record-holder for the longest-lasting strike clocked in at more than 17 seconds. Strikes are measured using a combination of satellite technology and ground-based lightning mapping arrays—networks of sensors that record the radio signals produced by lightning.
With increasingly powerful and accurate technology, Peterson and his colleagues are beginning to get better data about these storms to understand exactly what makes them tick. For instance, Peterson says, the researchers are investigating unusual, especially powerful forms of lightning and ones whose charge lasts particularly long (that is, a few hundred milliseconds) in the ground after they strike. 'It is a very exciting time to be in lightning science,' he says.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
August brings ominous hurricane season news. Is another Helene on the way?
The beginning of August brings skyrocketing hurricane risk, a new potential system off the East Coast and a reminder that devastating storms can quickly intensify into disaster. Historical trends show that August is often the pivot point for hurricane season, and forecasters say current conditions point toward an uptick in tropical activity. The beginning of the month also brought a new weather system that forecasters were watching off East Coast, but so far the danger appears low. It's too soon to know what will happen as the 2025 hurricane season progresses, but last year's season serves as a reminder of why it's important to be informed and prepare. 2024 saw brutal storm activity, including Hurricane Helene that devastated the Southeast in late September killing 248 people and causing $78.7 billion in damage. Throughout its path from northwest of Steinhatchee, Florida, on Sept. 26 and through Tennessee and North Carolina, the storm also injured 117 others and forced the high-water rescues of more than 2,700 people, a National Hurricane Center report published in March revealed. The 2024 hurricane season also included devastating storms Beryl, Milton and John, whose names along with Helene, have been retired out of the World Meteorological Organization's rotating alphabetical basis of hurricane names due to their severity. As forecasters and residents in hurricane-prone regions brace for more danger, here's a look back at the destructive power of Hurricane Helene. See photos of Hurricane Helene's aftermath Contributing: Doyle Rice, Dinah Voyles Pulver and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: August hurricane forecast: Is another Helene on the way?
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
515-Mile Lightning Bolt, as Big as 7,553 Football Fields, Breaks World Record
The powerful megaflash extended from eastern Texas to Kansas City in MissouriNEED TO KNOW The World Meteorological Organization confirmed a new world record for lightning discharge distance The powerful lightning bolt, also known as a megaflash, stretched 515 miles from eastern Texas to Kansas City, Mo. The average lightning bolt size is 10 to 12 milesAn electric weather phenomenon just broke a world record. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported on July 31 that a megaflash has set a new world record for lightning discharge distance. The massive lightning bolt — stretching 515 miles — struck on Oct. 22, 2017, and extended from eastern Texas to Kansas City in Missouri. PEOPLE calculated that it was roughly as long as 7,553 football fields. Compared to the new 515-mile world record, the average lightning bolt size is 10 to 12 miles, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was a 477-mile megaflash that struck from Texas to Mississippi in April 2020, according to a July 2025 WMO video. Researchers verified the new record using satellite technology. The new findings, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, explained the importance of documenting megaflashes. 'Documenting extreme cases of megaflashes — where nearly the entire electrified stratiform region in storms spanning multiple states is discharged all at once — is important for lightning physics to understand the limits of what lightning in expansive charge reservoirs is capable of, and for lightning safety by revealing the maximum extent of lightning hazards from the most impactful individual flashes on Earth,' scientists wrote. Researchers continued in the newly published report: 'Each new extreme event identified provides insights into the context, locations, and environments conducive to expansive flashes that are necessary to ultimately answer the question of why certain organized convective systems produce megaflashes while other similar systems produce none.' Read the original article on People
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
Dragon Bravo fire grows to largest wildfire in the continental US
'We're kind of locked in a dry, breezy, abnormally hot pattern because our monsoon hasn't showed up,' said Benjamin Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff, Ariz. Smoke and a pyrocumulus cloud rose at sunset from the Dragon Bravo fire at the Grand Canyon, as seen from Mather Point on Monday. Jon Gambrell/Associated Press A seasonal shift in winds typically brings moisture from the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean to the Southwest starting in late June through September. Thunderstorms wet the landscape, and the air is humid. Not this year. The monsoon season has been very dry so far, the third driest ever, Peterson said. Many areas of Arizona saw below-normal rainfall in July. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A gauge in the park measured about an inch of rain in July, with most of it falling early in the month. That's more than a half an inch less than normal. Related : Advertisement Humidity levels were expected to drop into the single digits this weekend. Low humidity means the air is dry, which pulls moisture from the vegetation, making it more flammable. There's hope, though, that the monsoon season will pick up. 'So far, the monsoon season has only existed in short bursts,' Peterson said. 'It could be delayed, and we could catch up. Longer-range models do not really support this, but it only takes a very wet week or two to change that.' Advertisement A lightning strike July 4 ignited the Dragon Bravo fire, which was named after a rock formation called the Dragon that's close to where the blaze started. 'Bravo' was added to the name to differentiate it from a previous Dragon fire in the same general area in 2022. In Alaska, the Klikhtentotzna fire in Yukon-Koyukuk has burned for more than a month. It covered more than 118,000 acres as of Saturday, making it the largest in the country. The Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, visible at night from Mather Point on the South Rim in Grand Canyon Village, on July 14. BRIDGET BENNETT/NYT National Park Service officials initially allowed the Dragon Bravo fire to burn, a forest management tool used to improve the health of a forest by thinning overgrown vegetation that can serve as fuel for catastrophic fires. In the days that followed, the fire slowly grew. Then, on July 11, strong winds developed and the fire jumped containment lines, Governor Katie Hobbs of Arizona has called for an investigation into why the federal government decided to manage the fire as a 'controlled burn.' Firefighters are now actively fighting the wildfire. 'This is a full suppression,' said Lisa Jennings, a spokesperson for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, which is overseeing the firefighting operations. The fire has shut down the North Rim and all hiking trails in this remote area of the national park. The South Rim, which gets 90% of the park's visitors, remains open. Advertisement Trails between the two rims, including the Bright Angel and the Kaibab trails, are closed because of poor air quality from smoke. The mile-deep Grand Canyon cuts between the North Rim and South Rim, providing a natural fire break. Related : The fire burning on the North Rim is visible 11 miles away on the South Rim. 'In the Grand Canyon Historic Village area, if you look directly north, the fire is at 12 o'clock, right across the canyon,' Jennings said. 'You can see the flames at night. You can see clouds of smoke during the day.' Visitors gathered at Mather Point on the South Rim as smoke from the Dragon Bravo Fire rose at dawn, on July 15. BRIDGET BENNETT/NYT The fire has been burning through dense, mixed conifer forest with trees, including Douglas fir, more than 100 feet tall on the North Rim. The vegetation is extremely parched and flammable from the dry, windy weather. 'This fire behavior we're seeing is unprecedented,' Jennings said. 'We have had consistently gusty winds with this dry spell for the past eight days. There's lots of fuel to burn through.' Jennings said the topography of the Grand Canyon had made fighting the fire especially challenging as wind was funneled through the canyon and the smaller finger canyons, causing the wind to accelerate. The wind has been carrying burning embers more than a mile away and rapidly spreading the wildfire. 'The canyon creates its own weather,' Jennings said. 'It's hard to even get across how complex the situation is here.' The most active part of the fire is just outside the park in the Kaibab National Forest. Firefighters are focused on protecting the Kaibab Lodge and its guest cabins, 5 miles from the North Rim entrance. The fire is close to the lodge but on the other side of Highway 67, which is the entrance road into the North Rim. Advertisement This article originally appeared in .
