Remarkable Distance Covered: Lightning Strike Spans 515 Miles, Transverses Over Three States
In the vast expanse of the Great Plains, on a fateful day in October 2017, a remarkable event unfolded. The National Weather Service reported a severe storm that hit the region, and within it, something extraordinary took place - the formation of the longest lightning flash ever recorded in the world, later dubbed the "megaflash."
This gigantic bolt of lightning stretched across at least three states: eastern Texas, Oklahoma, and near Kansas City. The distance it covered, approximately 515 miles, is equivalent to a 90-minute commercial flight, or, if you were traveling by car, it would take at least 8 hours to cover its distance.
The megaflash occurred within a large-scale storm system known as a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS). These extensive complexes of thunderstorms operate together as a single large system, often spanning hundreds of miles and lasting for many hours. The 2017 record megaflash, which stretched 515 miles across the Great Plains of the United States, was no exception.
Key factors contributing to megaflash formation include the MCSs themselves, which facilitate the conditions necessary for a lightning flash to propagate over extraordinary distances. The Great Plains, one of only two global regions where megaflashes are likely, have the right combination of atmospheric moisture, instability, and large storm clusters that create the ideal environment for MCSs to develop and sustain prolonged electrical discharges over huge distances.
Within such large storm systems, electrons accumulate in different regions of clouds, creating strong ionized pathways in the air. Lightning occurs when electrons move rapidly along these paths through large volumes of negatively and positively charged regions in the clouds and atmosphere, allowing a single continuous flash to cover remarkable distances.
The identification and verification of megaflashes have only recently been possible due to advanced satellite-based lightning monitoring, which can accurately measure lightning flashes that ground-based sensors might miss due to their enormous extent. The 2017 megaflash, which lasted only a few seconds, was confirmed as the longest lightning flash on record by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) committee, which includes Randall Cerveny, a professor of geographical sciences at Arizona State University.
Randall Cerveny described the megaflash as a giant bolt of lightning that travels huge distances from its origin point. The WMO, an agency within the United Nations, has officially certified the megaflash as the longest lightning flash on record. This event highlights the immense energy contained in MCSs and underlines the importance of high-quality monitoring for understanding and predicting extreme weather phenomena involving lightning.
In summary, the combination of large, persistent thunderstorm complexes (MCSs), suitable atmospheric conditions found in certain geographical regions, and the physical process of charge separation within the clouds enables the formation of megaflashes, with the Great Plains being a prime location for such events as confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization. The 2017 megaflash, a testament to the power and mystery of nature, continues to captivate scientists and the public alike.
- The extraordinary 2017 megaflash, which covered a distance of approximately 515 miles across environmental-science regions such as eastern Texas, Oklahoma, and near Kansas City, was not only a product of the National Weather Service-reported severe storm but also an indication of the complex relationships between science, weather, and the environment.
- Although megaflashes are rare occurrences in the field of environmental-science, the formation of this extraordinary lightning event within a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) demonstrates the importance of studying weather systems and their interactions with the environment, especially in the unique atmospheric conditions of the Great Plains.
