Overview

• The 515-mile bolt stretched across the U.S. Great Plains from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri, exceeding the previous 477-mile record set in 2020.
• The record was identified through retrospective analysis of NOAA’s GOES-16 and other geostationary satellite instruments deployed since 2017.
• Megaflashes are defined as single lightning discharges of at least 100 kilometres that travel horizontally through expansive thunderstorms known as mesoscale convective systems.
• WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo warned that megaflashes undermine existing safety guidelines like the 30-30 rule and heighten hazards for aviation and wildfire ignition.
• Ongoing improvements in lightning mappers aboard satellites from the U.S., Europe and China are extending scientists’ ability to observe and understand megaflashes globally.