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United States Science

Almost 500-Mile-Long Lightning Bolt Crossed Three US States (bbc.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the record-breaking dept.
An almost 500-mile long bolt of lightning that lit up the sky across three US states has set a new world record for longest flash, scientists have confirmed. The BBC reports: The lightning bolt, extended a total of 477.2 miles (768 km) and spread across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The previous record was 440.6 miles (709 km) and recorded in Brazil in 2018. Lightning rarely extends over 10 miles and usually lasts under a second. Another lightning flash recorded in 2020 -- in Uruguay and Argentina -- has also set a new record for duration at 17.1 seconds. The previous record was 16.7 seconds.

According to the WMO, both records took place in areas prone to intense storms that produce 'megaflashes,' namely the Great Plains region of the United States and the La Plata basin of South America's southern cone. Previously accepted WMO 'lightning extremes' include a 1975 incident in which 21 people were killed by a single flash of a lightning as they huddled inside a tent in Zimbabwe. In another incident, 469 people were killed when lightning struck the Egyptian town of Dronka in 1994, causing burning oil to flood the town.
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Almost 500-Mile-Long Lightning Bolt Crossed Three US States More

Almost 500-Mile-Long Lightning Bolt Crossed Three US States

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  • When is it lightning and when is it aurora type of glowing air? Lightning is/was always said to be due to separation of charge caused by Cosmic rays, while Aurora is directly caused by incoming solar wind, but there seems to be overlap in these phenomena. I don't see how one can get separation of charges over hundreds of kilometers causing a concentrated lightning bolt.

    • Guess I'm not following you here, as I don't really see "overlap". I've lived in Alaska and Florida. From a purely event standpoint, there's a rather massive difference between a rather quiet Aurora Borealis/Austrialis dancing across the sky for hours, and a lightning bolt ripping the sky apart in seconds, with a thunderous applause and plenty of risk of killing people.

      It's like discussing the difference between a 220V 3-phase outlet, and static electricity. Also, this is technically how they measure li

  • More evidence of God wrath. It's brutal out here.

  • So it begins (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The reign of YHWH has ended. The throne has been taken from him, his wicked mind knocked out of his skull with the sceptre of Ulz'noch. Now mankind will know the providence of Ulz'noch. May the cruel soil themselves in His presence, for Ulz'noch cares not for the colors of the flag you fly, for if he sees it stained in the blood of the innocent, he shall impale you upon the flagpole. The curse of Ulz'noch is upon the masters of mankind.

  • Didn't cross three states (Score:4, Informative)

    by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @05:13AM (#62229587)

    It crossed an area that includes three states, but it didn't cross three states.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      It crossed an area that includes three states, but it didn't cross three states.

      Yeah. And then it depends where those states are - three states in the Northeast isn't that impressive, but three states in the west coast is far more so (especially in a north-south direction because California is just so damn big). Or one that goes across Texas.

  • Over such a distance i wonder what the voltage is of such a bolt. Should I use 10000V/cm ? then over 100km that means 100 million volt, in this case sth like 800 million volt

    • Re: Potential difference (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @09:00AM (#62229941) Homepage

      I think you're question leads to a larger question: how can a cloud-to-cloud lightning bolt ever be longer than its distance to the ground? If the cloud deck is at 10 km, why wouldn't a 30 km cloud-cloud bolt always just go to ground? It would seem like there would always be a larger field going to ground somewhere along that 30 km stretch, no matter what potential the ground is at.

      I don't know the answer, but I could imagine a scenario where the clouds are not progressively going from 800 MV on one end to 0 MV on the other, but rather a patchwork of different potentials that aren't large enough relative to local ground to strike ground, but large enough relative to each other for cloud-cloud bolts. In the simplest view I'm imagining a string of alternating "+" and "-" clouds that are 1 km apart, that all strike at once. That may be to simplistic, but it would prevent ground striking but allow for a very long cloud-cloud strike.

      Another possibility is that the ground potential is following along with the cloud potential along the whole length of the bolt, so the cloud-ground field is a always small. Not sure if that's physically reasonable.

      Maybe someone else has a better (or just correct) explanation, but those are two scenarios where such a bolt could be sustained.

      • If the breakdown strength along a 500 mile channel is low because of humidity, suspended ions, etc, while the brealdown strength straight down is high (clean dry air under a cloud front, for example), this could certainly happen with less extreme voltages.

        In that case, it would be like asking why electrical current flows through an insulated wire instead of arcing to ground immediately.

        • An archipelago of islands of potential difference along a "conga line" of thunderstorms, in this case, unusually dense along the line, sounds plausible. If you have lived in the region or flown on either side of such a line, they can be impressive. The recurring weather pattern of the region is a cold front from the NW encountering warm moist Gulf air, developing a line of thunderstorms, sometimes with tornadoes.

          I recall a spectacular view of such a line once on a flight to Norfolk, VA probably October,

        • But don't you need a factor 100 difference then between horizontal and vertical and is that realistic?

          I suspect that once current starts flowing along part of the trackdifferent math needs to be used and that the threshold is lowered for extending that track.

  • And He still missed Trump!
    • I had thought, foolishly, that a cool article on 500 mile lightning would somehow avoid someone roping politics into it. I was incorrect.

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday February 02, 2022 @08:36AM (#62229883)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Now we can just track where it landed to see Thor arrival

  • The summary says this strike took place in the Great Plains, but the text says âoeacross parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi,â which is the Gulf Coast. Who writes this crap?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by colfer ( 619105 )

      The BBC apparently deleted that part later. The World Meteorological Organization press release still has it. The paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society says this:

      This megaflash was produced by an MCS that originated over the Great Plains and moved southward before migrating offshore over the Gulf of Mexico. The megaflash occurred after the storm had moved offshore and it extended throughout the trailing stratiform region stretching along the Gulf Coast between Texas and Mississippi...

  • Mostly because it took so long for someone to say "shocking" ;-)

  • daily trash

  • Any sightings of the DeLorean?

  • ... all you need to do is tie a kite to Four Corners Monument.

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