On 7 February 2022, the World Meteorological Organization announced that a single bolt on 29 April 2020 stretched over 767 kilometres (477 miles) across Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This incredible length is equivalent to the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio.
What is the most powerful lightning strike ever recorded?
A recent analysis from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found that a single flash of lightning along the northern Gulf Coast spanned 477 miles across, breaking a world record. This megaflash of lightning lit up an area stretching from Texas to Mississippi.
How long did the longest lightning bolt last?
The greatest duration for a single lightning flash of 17.102 ± 0.002 seconds developed continuously through a thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina on June 18, 2020. This new record breaks the old one of 16.73 seconds set March 19, 2019 in northern Argentina. Copyright 2022 Nexstar Media Inc.
What is Megaflash lightning?
According to lightning scientists, megaflashes are at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) in distance and do not occur in ordinary thunderstorms. They need large, electrified clouds that discharge at low enough rates to allow for single horizontal flashes spanning great distances.
What is red lightning?
Like regular lightning, red lightning is caused by a build-up of electrical charge in clouds, but in this case the excess charge is released to the ionosphere — around 50 miles (81 kilometers) up — rather than to the ground. Sprites are usually red in colour, and can range in shape between a jellyfish and a carrot.
Does dark lightning exist?
Dark lightning is the most energetic radiation produced naturally on Earth, but was unknown before 1991. While scientists now know that dark lightning naturally occurs in thunderstorms, they do not know how frequently these flashes take place or whether visible lightning always accompanies them.
How hot is blue lightning?
The flash reaches temperatures of about 30,000 K. Lightning is visible as a flash of light because of both incandescence (due to its high temperature it glows blue-white) and luminescence (excitation of nitrogen gas in the atmosphere).
Is lightning hotter than the sun?
In fact, lightning can heat the air it passes through to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5 times hotter than the surface of the sun).
What is the rarest lightning bolt?
Bolts like these are called gigantic jets. They are the rarest and most powerful sort of lightning, occurring as few as 1,000 times a year and emitting more than 50 times as much energy as a typical lightning bolt — and now, scientists have just detected the single most powerful gigantic jet yet.
What is a Superbolt lightning?
“Superbolts” are the most powerful lightning on Earth, with discharges so strong that they cannot be reproduced in the laboratory. The bolts also display geographic and seasonal attributes opposite that of regular lightning, adding to their mystery.
What is the true color of lightning?
It’s almost always white, but often it’s tinged with another color around the edges. The three most common colors, aside from white, are blue, yellow, and violet.
What is the 30 rule of lightning?
When You See Lightning, Count The Time Until You Hear Thunder. If That Is 30 Seconds Or Less, The Thunderstorm Is Close Enough To Be Dangerous – Seek Shelter (if you can’t see the lightning, just hearing the thunder is a good back-up rule). Wait 30 Minutes Or More After The Lightning Flash Before Leaving Shelter.
What are the 7 types of lightning?
Cloud-to-Ground (CG) Lightning
- Positive Cloud-to-Ground Lightning (+CG)
- Cloud-to-Air (CA) Lightning.
- Ground-to-Cloud (GC) Lightning.
- Intracloud (IC) Lightning.
- Cloud-to-Cloud (CC) Lightning (or intercloud lightning)
Can lightning exist space?
Lightning is found all over the solar system. Spacecraft have detected extraterrestrial lightning strikes in the clouds of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
Is purple lightning real?
When lightning strikes, different particles will scatter this light and cause the strike to appear as blue, pink, purple, white or even a brown-ish tint.
Is it OK to be in the shower during a thunderstorm?
Since lightning can travel through plumbing, “it is best to avoid all water during a thunderstorm. Do not shower, bathe, wash dishes, or wash your hands,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. “The risk of lightning traveling through plumbing might be less with plastic pipes than with metal pipes.
What is Spider lightning?
Spider lightning refers to long, horizontally traveling flashes often seen on the underside of stratiform clouds. Spider lightning is often linked to +CG flashes.
Is Gold lightning real?
Yellow lightning is uncommon; however, they tend to be cooler than the blue, lilac and white. They’re caused to due to a high concentration of dust in the air. And is an indication of a dry thunderstorm with low-precipitation.
Is there anything hotter than lightning?
A bolt of lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. One thing hotter is when gold atoms are smashed together by the Large Hadron Collider, but only for a split second. Another thing hotter is a supernova.
Is lightning hotter than lava?
Lightning is much hotter than lava. Lightning is 70,000 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to Lava at 2,240 degrees.
Is fire hotter than lightning?
As you can see, lightning — or rather, the air around lightning — is 20 times hotter than the hottest eruptions nowadays. Hope this answer helped!