Lightning is generally short and shocking, not long and slow. But a new reportfrom the World Meteorological Organization tracked down the longest lightning bolts, both in terms of time and distance.
The most well-travelled lightning bolt covered a distance of almost 200 miles, streaking across the state of Oklahoma on June 20, 2007.
“The end result reinforces critical safety information regarding lightning, specifically that lightning flashes can travel huge distances from their parent thunderstorms. Our experts’ best advice: when thunder roars, go indoors,” Randall Cerveny, chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO said.
But that long journey took place in a flash. The record for longest-lasting lightning discharge went to a lightning bolt in France on August 30, 2012 that struck continuously for 7.74 seconds. MORE