Huge record-breaking lightning bolt spans 3 U.S. states:
It's not quite the right time to debunk that myth about lightning never striking the same place twice, as an enormous bolt has set a new global record.
The longest single flash of lightning has been captured by satellites of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, recorded and announced by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday.
The "megaflash" stretched 768 kilometres (give or take 8 kilometres) or 477.2 miles (give or take 5 miles) across parts of the southern U.S. including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi on April 29, 2020.
The flash in question measures as long as the distance between New York City and Columbus Ohio. Or if you want another, between London and Hamburg.
[...] If the WMO isn't cranking up AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" today, they're doing it wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:37AM
That's a shocker.
(Score: 2) by EJ on Thursday February 03 2022, @08:50AM
A single lightning bolt could hit FOUR states at the same time. [utahscanyoncountry.com]
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @08:58AM (4 children)
Not as amazing as SoylentNews banning aristarchus over all United States, European Unities, and Central and South America, Asia, Northern East Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. But, you know, these things are relative. Upmod old aristarchus posts if you can, and bring back our brother.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @09:10AM (3 children)
Oh, Spam modding innocent ACs pointing out the censorship inherent is the system, now, are we? Offtopic, at most, but hardly spam, unless you think a post by a fellow soylentil, worried about the censoring of a fellow solylentil, is "spam". In that case, may Slashdot-beta have mercy on your soul.
Or, are you Runaway?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @09:19AM (2 children)
FatPhil is just upset that the best he can do is blow gas out his arse, or kick dubious nicks off IRC. What a total wanker.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday February 03 2022, @10:38AM (1 child)
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @05:15AM
Yes, how would anyone know?
(Score: 2, Funny) by MIRV888 on Thursday February 03 2022, @09:04AM (3 children)
That's a huge lightning bolt.
Thank(?) god he missed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @12:05PM (2 children)
>> Thank(?) god he missed.
How do you know he didn't get who he was aiming for? There are a lot of potential targets in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (about 0.6% of the population according to https://www.hli.org/resources/number-of-transgenders-in-the-united-states/) [hli.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @01:42PM (1 child)
Shot across the bow?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 03 2022, @03:41PM
A warning for people to stop touching themselves.
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday February 03 2022, @12:08PM
I wonder how much energy was transferred by that lightning strike. It probably wasn't transmitting anywhere near peak for all but a very small fraction of that lifespan, but that's still a huge amount of energy possible.
As to that amazingly long strike, it seems to me that there had to be special circumstances otherwise the lightning (on either end) would have arced to something closer, like the ground. Perhaps it was a cloud to cloud strike with heavily ionized air in between. Ionization greatly increases the conductivity of air. It might also be higher altitude, perhaps stretching well above the cloud tops - low density helps prolong ionization. Finally, how do you generate a large net difference in voltage between two parts (presumably of the same extended storm system) separated by a large horizontal distance? What I recall of lightning dynamics is that the difference is generated vertically.
But perhaps in my budding scenario, there were a line of thunderstorms, creating a huge channel of ionized air above the storms, and one end had discharged to ground (or elsewhere) and the other end was highly charged. It was lower resistance to travel through the ionized channel to the discharged side than to arc directly to ground underneath.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 03 2022, @01:01PM
The takeaway is, Do Not Make Thor Angry.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday February 03 2022, @06:21PM (2 children)
What potential difference could create an arc that long? TFA does not contain the word "volt".
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 03 2022, @07:13PM (1 child)
>> What potential difference could create an arc that long?
Runaway in Texas and Zumi in Mississippi would be enough to do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 04 2022, @08:42AM
Waiting for the S-waves...