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A record-breaking lightning bolt that stretched from Texas to Kansas in October 2017 has officially set the world record for the longest lightning strike ever recorded, according to ScienceAlert. The bolt traveled 829 kilometers (about 515 miles) across the Great Plains during a powerful thunderstorm, surpassing the previous record by 61 kilometers (38 miles).
Known as a “megaflash,” this type of lightning travels horizontally across vast cloud systems rather than striking downward. Scientists say megaflashes are still not fully understood, but advances in satellite technology are helping researchers learn more. Both this record-setting strike and the previous one—768 kilometers across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi in 2020—were detected using NOAA’s GOES-16 and GOES-17 weather satellites, which include Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs).
While most lightning bolts are under 10 miles long, megaflashes can exceed 100 kilometers, making them difficult to track. Measuring them requires combining satellite and ground data to confirm a single continuous strike and map its full length in three dimensions. Because such bolts are often hidden within clouds, they can be easily overlooked. This latest discovery was made years after the event, when scientists reviewed older satellite data. Experts believe even more extreme lightning events likely exist and may be discovered with continued monitoring.
