770 kilometers of lightning at 2020 was declared the longest single bolt recorded

New York: A lightning strike that stretched nearly 769 kilometers in three US states in 2020 or equivalent to the distance between London and the German city in Hamburg was declared the longest single flash by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Records of attacking on April 29, 2020 in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in the South AS, exactly 768 km, or 477.2 miles, experts at the UN Intergovernmental Agency said on Tuesday.

The longest single flash covered the horizontal distance of 768 ± 8 km (477.2 ± 5 miles) in all parts of the southern United States on April 29, 2020.

This is equivalent to the distance between New York City and Columbus Ohio in the United States or between London and the German city of Hamburg, WMO said in a press release.

The biggest duration for a single lightning flash 17.102 ± 0.002 seconds from flash which developed continuously through storm over Uruguay and North Argentina on June 18, 2020, he said.

The new record for the longest megaflash distance is 60 kilometers more than the previous record, with a distance of 709 ± 8 km (440.6 ± 5 mi) in all parts of the South Brazil on October 31, 2018.

Both previous records and new use the same maximum large circle distance methodology to measure the level of flash.

The longest duration of Megaflash has a previous duration of 16.73 seconds originating from a continuously developed flash above North Argentina on March 4, 2019, 0.37 seconds shorter than new records.

This finding was published in the American Meteorological Community Bulletin, WMO said.

“This is an extraordinary note of a single flash flash event. Extreme environment is a measurement of life from natural forces, as well as scientific progress to be able to conduct such an assessment. The more extreme possibility is still there, and that we will be able to observe it as a lightning detection technology Increases, “said Professor Randall Cerveny, Rapporeeur weather and extreme climates for WMO.

“Lightning is a big danger that claims many lives every year. This finding highlights the issue of public lightning safety that is important for electrical clouds where flash can travel a huge distance,” said Secretary General WMO Prof. Talas peter.

A new record strike occurs in hotspots for Messosale Convective System Lightning Hurricane (MCS), which is dynamically allowing extraordinary megaflash – that is, Great Plains in North America, and La Plata Basin in South America. Members of the Lightning Specialist and the Ron Holle committee noted, “A very large and long flash events are not isolated but occur during active storms. Every time there is a Thunder heard it’s time to reach a safe place.” The only safe location is a substantial building that has cable and plumbing lips; Not a structure like on the beach or bus stop. The second safe location that is safe is in a fully covered metal vehicle; Not Dune buggies or motorbikes.

If lightning is 10 km as found with reliable lightning data, go to a safe building or vehicle. Because this extreme case shows, lightning can arrive in a few seconds, but they are embedded in a larger storm, so be aware of. “WMO archives of the weather and extreme climates maintain the official record of the world, hemisphere, and regional extreme records associated with the world with a number of specific types of weather.

At present, the archives include extremes for temperature, pressure, rainfall, hail, wind and lightning and two specific storms, tornadoes and tropical cyclones.

Previous assessments that set the duration of Flash and the total records used data collected by land-based lightning mapping array networks (LMA). Many lightning scientists admit that there is a top restriction for a lightning scale that can be observed by LMA. Identifying Megaflash outside this extreme will require lightning mapping technology with a larger domain of observation.

The latest advances in space-based lightning mapping offer the ability to measure the level of flash and continuous duration above a broad geospatial domain. These new instruments include Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLM) on the Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series Geostation (Go-16 and 17) that record new lighting records, and their colleagues orbit from Europe (third meteosat Generation (MTG) lightning imager (MTG)) and China (FY-4 lightning mapping imager).

“Lightning is a natural phenomenon that is very difficult to understand and complex for its effects on our daily lives. We are now in a place where we have very good measurements of many aspects, which allow us to find shocking new aspects. Now that we have a strong record of this monsters blinking, we can begin to understand how they happen and respect the disproportionate impacts they have, “said the main writer and member of the Michael J. Peterson evaluation committee, from Space and Remote Sensing Group (ISR – 2) Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA.

There are still many who don’t know about these monsters, but as a career initial scientist, it is the privilege of standing among my colleagues at the forefront of this new and interesting research field and to push the boundaries of our understanding of what lightning Able, “said Peterson.