America’s Longest Lightning Strike Recently Confirmed

On October 22, 2017, during a storm that hit the Great Plains, the longest lightning flash ever recorded flashed from Texas to Kansas City. However, scientists have only recently confirmed the length with new technology that was not available then. 829 kilometers long, this lightning flash is now America’s longest, beating the previous record of 768 kilometers in 2020.

Instead of using sensors on the ground to record lightning, like before, new methods use satellites that measure the length of the flash from space instead. Though the record-breaking flash was almost eight years ago, scientists have used the satellites to measure precisely and prove that this was indeed the longest.

This bolt is 50 times longer than the average lightning flash, also known as a megaflash. “A megaflash is a giant bolt of lightning that travels huge distances from its origin point,” said Randall Cerveny, a professor at Arizona State University. “It’s an incredibly strange phenomenon,” Randall Cerveny added. “We only discovered them 10 years ago, when we could use a particular set of technologies to detect the start and end locations of the lightning events.”

The World Meteorological Organization, also known as the WMO, announced in July that they confirmed that this was the longest bolt ever found. Megaflashes, while not exactly uncommon, do not usually happen in places without severe storms. If warm, wet air were to meet with dry, cold air, instabilities in the atmosphere could cause these long flashes of lightning.

Many people struggle to understand lightning and storms, which is why gathering data is so important. “It is going to be really useful from having all of these datasets, ground-based or satellite-based, to help us really understand what is going on with lightning and thunderstorms,” Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist, said.

Lightning is caused when particles in the clouds clash into each other, creating electricity, soon after which the electricity arcs to the ground in a flash, a lightning bolt. Scientists continue to research more about lightning and megaflashes, working on understanding this weather phenomenon. Along with lightning, many other storms and works of weather phenomena are also being researched to discover more.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/weather/megaflash-lightning-record-climate, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cy98qvdv9g7o, https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/shocking-record-lightning-bolt-stretched-515-miles-crossed-three-state-rcna221993