According to information published this week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an individual lightning strike that extended over the border of Argentina and Uruguay in 2020 held the world record by lasting 17.1 seconds.
The publication with this data appeared on Monday, January 31, on the organization’s Twitter account, where it was also indicated that the exact date of the longest lightning strike in the world was June 18, 2020, and was recorded at a point close to the border between both countries.
WMO has verified 2 new world records for ⚡️⚡️lightning in notorious #megaflash hotspot
Longest distance single flash of 768 km (477.2 miles) across southern #USES on 29.4.2020
Greatest duration of 17.102 seconds over #Uruguay and northern #Argentina on 18.6.2020@NOAA pic.twitter.com/ijPXXue0bD
— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) February 1, 2022
The previous record also belonged to Argentina and dated back to 2019, when a lightning strike of 16.73 seconds struck the central region, in a strip that goes from the border between the province of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos to the south of Córdoba.
Meanwhile, the WMO also reported that a lightning strike that spanned nearly 500 miles across three US states has set the new world record for the longest distance traveled.
This event occurred in April 2020, when a single lightning bolt spread 768 kilometers through Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, thus surpassing the previous record of 709 kilometers that occurred in 2018 in Brazil.
“These two lightning records are absolutely extraordinary,” says Randall Cerveny, head of record confirmation at WMO.
The expert also explained that the two events occurred “from cloud to cloud”, several thousand meters above the ground, so they never put someone’s life at risk.
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