World record length for a lightning bolt of 768 km
The lightning traveled the equivalent of the distance between the cities of London and Hamburg in the sky of the southern United States (Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi).
Image d’illustration.
AFP
A lightning bolt that traveled the distance of 768 km in the United States on April 29, 2020 now holds the record for the longest length ever recorded for such a phenomenon, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This UN agency also validated another record, that of the lightning that lasted the longest: June 18, 2020, during a thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina. , a lightning flash unfolded for 17.102 seconds.
Attributed to a flash observed in northern Argentina on March 4, 2019, the previous record duration stood at 16.73 seconds, according to the WMO, whose experts rely on satellite technologies for their measurements.
The record-breaking flash of 2020 covered a horizontal distance of 768 km in the skies of the southern United States (Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi). This is approximately equivalent to the distance between the cities of London and Hamburg.
This record was until now held by a 709 km mega lightning strike that streaked the sky of southern Brazil on October 31, 2018.
The two new records were recorded in customary areas of these phenomena in North and South America, namely the Great Plains and the La Plata Basin respectively.
“Lightning is a major risk and many victims are to be deplored each year. These new records highlight the serious public safety concerns raised by electrified clouds that produce lightning that can travel considerable distances,” commented WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“Even more extreme values”
Data on new records validated by WMO, which maintains the official record of extremes across the globe, hemispheres and regions, have appeared in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
“Even more extreme values probably exist and we will no doubt be able to observe them when lightning detection techniques are even more advanced,” said Randall Cerveny, the WMO’s rapporteur for meteorological and climatic extremes.
According to Ron Holle, a recognized lightning specialist and member of the WMO Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes, the two record-breaking lightning strikes “were not isolated phenomena, but occurred during thunderstorms. “. And to warn: “As soon as you hear thunder, you have to take shelter from lightning”.
According to the WMO, the only safe places are solid buildings of sufficient size with electrical installation and pipes and not a beach or a bus stop. You are just as well protected inside a completely closed vehicle with a metal roof, but not on a motorcycle.
There are other types of records related to lightning. The deadliest ‘direct impact’ lightning strike was in 1975 in Zimbabwe, when 21 people were killed by a single strike while sheltering in a hut.
The record for mortality from “indirect impact” dates back to 1994: 469 people were killed in Dronka, Egypt, when lightning struck a fuel tank that caught fire and spilled into the city.
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