A 2007 199-mile-long lightning bolt has set the world record for lightning bolt length, scientists confirmed this week.
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Both records were documented and certified by the World Meteorological Organization as extreme weather events.
“Our experts’ best advice: When thunder roars, go indoors”, Cerveny added. In addition to its cloud-to-cloud travels, the discharge also sent at least 13 bolts down to the ground, the researchers note.
Even among lightning, these two bolts shone bright.
“This investigation highlights the fact that, because of continued improvements in meteorology and climatology technology and analysis, climate experts can now monitor and detect weather events such as specific lightning flashes in much greater detail than ever before”, Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of climate and weather extremes for the WMO, said in a statement. “There could be a lower risk – the lower the flash rate – but it’s not ‘no-risk'”.
Of course not all storms have extreme lightning like that observed in Oklahoman and French storms.
The strike occurred on June 20th of 2007 and started just south of Tulsa and struck near the Texas/Oklahoma state line. Lightning also can go from cloud to cloud or can strike bodies of water. “The 30-30 rule is one that we still want to stress and make sure people are aware of. but it does demonstrate that lightning can hit far from where the storm actually is”.
According to the group’s research, a lone flash over Oklahoma in 2007 is believed to have spanned a horizontal distance of almost 200 miles.
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Lang measured the flash using the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman’s lightning mapping array.
