The World Meteorological Organization announced a new record for the longest single lightning flash ever recorded. The lightning occurred in October 2017 and last it just over seven seconds. But it was too long to be fully mapped by ground-based lightning sensors at the time.
New detailed analysis showed the flash extended from East Texas Northeast to almost Kansas City, Missouri… a 515 mile megaflash! The record-setting megaflash was observed in a mesoscale convective system, a large, very well organized complex of thunderstorms.
Thanks to advanced satellite technology, specifically the geostationary lightning mapper aboard the GOES-16 satellite, scientist were able to detect and confirm the lightning flash during a retrospective analysis.