It seems there's a new world record for the longest distance covered by a single flash of lightning.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed that a 515-mile-long "megaflash" of lightning in 2017 is a new world record.
The flash, a term for lightning inside a cloud that does not hit the ground, moved from northern Texas into Missouri and was part of a Mesoscale Convective System, a large complex of thunderstorms, on Oct. 22, 2017. This new lightning flash beats the previous record of 477 miles set by a flash on April 29, 2020.
There's more at the link.
If I'm reading that image correctly, the flash took about 7 seconds to cover 515 miles. Having driven over a similar route between Texas and Missouri in the past, I can only wish that road travel was even a thousandth of that speed!
Peter
Speed of light rather than not.
ReplyDelete515 miles in 7 seconds ... That's about 0.04% of the speed of light.
ReplyDeleteNot at all bad for something in an atmosphere and not in a particle accelerator.