A Lightning Bolt From Venice To Paris Has Been Recognized As The Largest In The World
- 31.07.2025, 18:30
- 3,582
A record-breaking lightning bolt, about 830 kilometers long, struck the United States in 2017.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported a megamolt 829 km long - a new record for the size of a flash, the organization said on its website.
"The new record - 829 km (515 miles) - has an error margin of plus or minus 8 km. It exceeds by 61 km the previous record set on April 29, 2020, when lightning streaked 768 km plus or minus 8 km over the southern United States," it said.
This lightning struck on October 22, 2017, in the sky from East Texas to the outskirts of Kansas City. It was not noticed in the initial analysis of the images and was only identified when the images were re-examined. The WMO compared the length of the lightning to the straight-line distance from Venice to Paris.
The record was set using satellite imagery, specifically this case is one of the first recorded by NOAA's GOES-16 geostationary instrument.
The WMO attributed the occurrence of such a huge lightning bolt to the fact that it formed in one of the zones of mesoscale convective systems - special thunderstorm fronts - that is the Great Plains of North America.
WMO also cites other records of lightning on Earth:
the longest flash, 17.102 plus or minus 0.002 seconds, was recorded during a thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina in 2020;
the highest number of deaths from a hit, 21 when it struck a hut in Zimbabwe in 1975;
the highest number of deaths due to the effects of a lightning strike, 469 victims of an ignited oil spill after hitting tanks in Egypt in 1994.
Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims
You can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.com
