Latest news with #GOES-16
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Science
- Economic Times
Scientists uncover a sky monster; lightning megaflash so massive it spanned hundreds of miles and 5 US states
TIL Creatives The incredible bolt stretched from Texas to near Kansas City in 2017, but took years to confirm due to the complexities of satellite data and evolving lightning science. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has confirmed a new world record for the longest single lightning flash ever recorded, an astonishing 829 kilometers (515 miles). This 'megaflash' lit up the sky during a powerful thunderstorm on 22 October 2017, spanning from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri. That's roughly the distance between Paris and Venice, and more equivalent to Toronto to New lightning event was so vast that it would take a car around 8–9 hours to cover that route on the ground, or a commercial airplane about 90 minutes in the sky. Also Read: Not Big Bang, new theory uses 'Gravity' and 'Quantum Physics' to explain the universe's birthWhile the lightning occurred in 2017, it wasn't until 2025 that it was officially recognized as the longest-ever lightning flash recorded. So, why the delay? The answer lies in technology and data analysis. At the time, scientists didn't have the tools or processing power to detect such a massive lightning flash. It was only after a re-examination of satellite data from the storm, using more advanced methods, that the enormous scale of the flash was finally revealed. The record was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Traditionally, ground-based systems like the Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) were used to track lightning. These systems have limitations; they can only "see" lightning within a certain distance. That means extra-long lightning flashes could be missed or only partially WMO press release said that the breakthrough came with the launch of GOES-16, a US weather satellite equipped with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) technology. It offers a bird's-eye view of thunderstorms over large areas. GOES-16, along with newer satellites like GOES-17, 18, and 19, made it possible to detect the full extent of the 2017 megaflash. The WMO says this record isn't just about numbers it highlights real safety risks. Lightning can strike far from where a storm seems to rare 'megaflashes' can travel hundreds of kilometers away from the main thundercloud, potentially affecting aircraft, starting wildfires, or catching people off guard.'Lightning is a source of wonder but also a major hazard that claims many lives around the world every year,' said Celeste Saulo, WMO WMO keeps an official archive of lightning extremes. Here are a few records: Longest-lasting lightning flash: 17.1 seconds, recorded over Uruguay and Argentina in 2020. Most people killed by one strike: 21 people in a hut in Zimbabwe in 1975. Deadliest indirect strike: 469 people died in Dronka, Egypt, in 1994 after lightning struck oil tanks, causing a deadly fire. Scientists believe even longer lightning flashes could exist. As satellite technology improves and data grows, more megaflashes may become apparent.'Extreme lightning events push the limits of what we can observe,' said Michael Peterson, lead author of the WMO evaluation and lightning researcher at Georgia Tech, in the press release.'With better tools and more data, we're just beginning to understand the full power of these natural phenomena.'Experts warn that the only truly safe places during a thunderstorm are inside buildings with plumbing and wiring or in metal-roofed vehicles. Tents, sheds, open beaches, and motorcycles offer no protection.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
Scientists uncover a sky monster; lightning megaflash so massive it spanned hundreds of miles and 5 US states
The World Meteorological Organization ( WMO ) has confirmed a new world record for the longest single lightning flash ever recorded, an astonishing 829 kilometers (515 miles). This 'megaflash' lit up the sky during a powerful thunderstorm on 22 October 2017, spanning from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri. That's roughly the distance between Paris and Venice, and more equivalent to Toronto to New York. The lightning event was so vast that it would take a car around 8–9 hours to cover that route on the ground, or a commercial airplane about 90 minutes in the sky. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category MCA Others Leadership Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Data Analytics Technology Design Thinking CXO Degree Data Science Product Management Operations Management PGDM Digital Marketing MBA Project Management others Data Science Management Cybersecurity healthcare Public Policy Skills you'll gain: Programming Proficiency Data Handling & Analysis Cybersecurity Awareness & Skills Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Duration: 24 Months Vellore Institute of Technology VIT Master of Computer Applications Starts on Aug 14, 2024 Get Details Also Read: Not Big Bang, new theory uses 'Gravity' and 'Quantum Physics' to explain the universe's birth by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Struggling With Belly Fat? Try This at Home Home Fitness Hack Shop Now Undo How was it discovered after 8 years? While the lightning occurred in 2017, it wasn't until 2025 that it was officially recognized as the longest-ever lightning flash recorded. Live Events So, why the delay? The answer lies in technology and data analysis. At the time, scientists didn't have the tools or processing power to detect such a massive lightning flash. It was only after a re-examination of satellite data from the storm, using more advanced methods, that the enormous scale of the flash was finally revealed. The record was published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society . The role of space-based lightning trackers Traditionally, ground-based systems like the Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) were used to track lightning. These systems have limitations; they can only "see" lightning within a certain distance. That means extra-long lightning flashes could be missed or only partially recorded. The WMO press release said that the breakthrough came with the launch of GOES-16, a US weather satellite equipped with Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) technology. It offers a bird's-eye view of thunderstorms over large areas. GOES-16, along with newer satellites like GOES-17, 18, and 19, made it possible to detect the full extent of the 2017 megaflash . The WMO says this record isn't just about numbers it highlights real safety risks. Lightning can strike far from where a storm seems to be. These rare 'megaflashes' can travel hundreds of kilometers away from the main thundercloud, potentially affecting aircraft, starting wildfires, or catching people off guard. 'Lightning is a source of wonder but also a major hazard that claims many lives around the world every year,' said Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General. Other lightning extremes The WMO keeps an official archive of lightning extremes. Here are a few records: Longest-lasting lightning flash: 17.1 seconds, recorded over Uruguay and Argentina in 2020. Most people killed by one strike: 21 people in a hut in Zimbabwe in 1975. Deadliest indirect strike: 469 people died in Dronka, Egypt, in 1994 after lightning struck oil tanks, causing a deadly fire. Could bigger strikes come? Scientists believe even longer lightning flashes could exist. As satellite technology improves and data grows, more megaflashes may become apparent. 'Extreme lightning events push the limits of what we can observe,' said Michael Peterson, lead author of the WMO evaluation and lightning researcher at Georgia Tech, in the press release. 'With better tools and more data, we're just beginning to understand the full power of these natural phenomena.' Experts warn that the only truly safe places during a thunderstorm are inside buildings with plumbing and wiring or in metal-roofed vehicles. Tents, sheds, open beaches, and motorcycles offer no protection.
New York Post
12 hours ago
- Science
- New York Post
A massive lightning ‘megaflash' set a world record — it stretched for a whopping 515 miles
A super-sized lightning bolt struck scientists as something special. Now, researchers have confirmed that a lightning strike from 2017 has broken a world record. A single flash of lightning that stretched across the Great Plains, from eastern Texas all the way to Kansas City, Missouri, turned out to be a staggering 515 miles long. 5 The lightning spanned from eastern Texas all the way to Kansas City, Missouri. Getty Images A new report in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society documented the new lightning record, which beat the previous title holder, a 477-mile bolt from April 2020. 'We call it megaflash lightning and we're just now figuring out the mechanics of how and why it occurs,' Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University professor who worked on the study, said in a statement. Megaflash lightning is defined as a lightning bolt that reaches beyond 62 miles in length. The average lightning bolt measures less than 10 miles long. Less than 1% of thunderstorms produce megaflash lightning, according to satellite observations analyzed by Michael Peterson at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Megaflashes come from long-lived storms, typically those that brew for 14 hours or more, and they are massive in size — covering an area comparable to the state of New Jersey in square miles. Cerveny and his colleagues measured the megaflash, which took place during a major thunderstorm in October 2017, with space-based instruments and a re-examination of satellite observations. 5 A single flash of lightning that stretched across the Great Plains turned out to be a staggering 515 miles long. Michael Peterson / GTRI They reviewed data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-16 satellite, which has a lightning mapper that detects about one million lightning bolts per day. 'Our weather satellites carry very exacting lightning detection equipment that we can use [to] document to the millisecond when a lightning flash starts and how far it travels,' Cerveny said. Lightning detection and measurement relied on ground-based networks of antennas for years. The antennas would detect the radio signals emitted by the lightning to estimate the location and travel speed based on the time it takes the signals to reach other antenna stations. 5 Less than 1 percent of thunderstorms produce megaflash lightning. Michael Peterson / GTRI 5 Megaflash lightning is defined as a lightning bolt that reaches beyond 60 miles in length. Michael Peterson / GTRI 'It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as additional high-quality lightning measurements accumulate over time,' Cerveny, who serves as rapporteur of weather and climate extremes for the World Meteorological Organization, explained. Satellite-borne lightning detectors that have been in orbit since 2017 have made it possible for scientists to continuously detect lightning and accurately measure it at continental-scale distances. 'Adding continuous measurements from geostationary orbit was a major advance,' Peterson, first author of the report, said in a statement. 5 They reviewed data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-16 satellite, which has a lightning mapper that detects about one million lightning bolts per day. American Meteorological Society 'We are now at a point where most of the global megaflash hotspots are covered by a geostationary satellite, and data processing techniques have improved to properly represent flashes in the vast quantity of observational data at all scales.' While megaflashes are rare, Ceverny said that it's not unusual for lightning strikes to reach 10 or 15 miles from the storm cloud it came from, which adds to the danger. Lightning strikes kill about 20 to 30 people per year in the U.S. and injure hundreds more, and most of these injuries occur before and after the peak of a thunderstorm, not during it. 'That's why you should wait at least half an hour after a thunderstorm passes before you go out and resume normal activities,' Cerveny said. 'The storm that produces a lightning strike doesn't have to be over the top of you.'
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
New World Record-Longest 'Megaflash' Lightning Confirmed. It Covered A Distance From East Texas To Near Kansas City
Scientists have confirmed a new world record for the longest lightning flash in a thunderstorm complex, which hit the Great Plains 8 years ago this fall. The so-called megaflash lightning extended a distance of 515 miles from northeast Texas to near Kansas City on Oct. 22, 2017, according to the findings by Georgia Tech researchers who were supported by NASA. It lasted 7.39 seconds and struck the ground below in various spots more than 100 times. This distance beats out the previous record megaflash of 477.2 miles set April 29, 2020, in the southern United States, according to a comprehensive database of weather records maintained by the World Meteorological Organization. You can see the vein-like appearance of the new record megaflash shaded in green in the analysis below. The blue and red dots show where cloud-to-ground lightning strikes occurred. Scientists found this lightning flash was not previously detected because of how data was originally processed from NOAA's GOES satellite. It was discovered when data was reanalyzed last year, so that's why the year in which this new record occurred is older (2017) than the previous one (2020). "The 2017 event is notable in that it was one of the first storms where NOAA's newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16) documented lightning 'megaflashes' – extremely long duration/distance lightning discharge events," the World Meteorological Organization said in a press release. A Georgia Tech press release said most lightning flashes stretch 10 miles or less, but longer ones covering distances of hundreds of miles happen often enough for satellites to see them. They are typically spotted in the Great Plains, where what meteorologists call mesoscale convective systems frequently strike. These complexes of thunderstorms are notorious for producing prolific lightning as well as flash flooding, high winds, hail and sometimes tornadoes. While this megaflash is a new record for distance, it's not in the top spot for how long it lasted. A bolt of lightning in 2020 over South America last 17 seconds, or nearly 10 seconds longer than this October 2017 event in the Great Plains, as senior meteorologist Jonathan Erdman wrote about. Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with for 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s. Solve the daily Crossword
Newsweek
19 hours ago
- Climate
- Newsweek
Record-Breaking 515-Mile-Long Lightning Strike Captured Over the US
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has certified a jaw-dropping new world record for the longest single lightning flash ever recorded. The lightning coursed a staggering 515 miles across the southern United States—travelling all the way from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri. The "megaflash" took place in October 2017 during a powerful thunderstorm system over the Great Plains, one of North America's most active storm zones. The lightning bolt spanned a distance that would take a commercial plane at least 90 minutes to fly. This new record clearly demonstrates the incredible power of the natural environment Professor Randall Cerveny "This new record clearly demonstrates the incredible power of the natural environment," said Professor Randall Cerveny, rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for the WMO. "It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as additional high-quality lightning measurements accumulate over time." This flash surpassed the previous record holder: a 477.2 mile flash, set in the U.S. in 2020. Both records were measured using the same "great circle" distance methodology. But the 2017 event was only recently identified through re-analysis using satellite instruments, including NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-16). "These new findings highlight important public safety concerns about electrified clouds that can produce flashes which travel extremely large distances and have a major impact on the aviation sector and can spark wildfires," said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. Satellite image of the record extent lightning flash that extended from eastern Texas to near Kansas City MO USA within a 22 October 2017 thunderstorm complex. Satellite image of the record extent lightning flash that extended from eastern Texas to near Kansas City MO USA within a 22 October 2017 thunderstorm complex. World Meteorological Organization WMO Lightning mapping has traditionally relied on ground-based systems, but recent advancements in space-based technology have expanded the observation range. Instruments like the GOES-R series' Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs), Europe's MTG Lightning Imager, and China's FY-4 satellite now provide continuous global lightning surveillance. As these extreme cases show, lightning can arrive within seconds over a long distance. Walt Lyons These "megaflash" events challenge previously understood boundaries of how far and long lightning can travel and reveal more about the dangers of extreme weather. "The extremes of what lightning is capable of is difficult to study because it pushes the boundaries of what we can practically observe," said lead author and evaluation committee member Michael J. Peterson, of the Severe Storms Research Center (SSRC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in a statement. "Adding continuous measurements from geostationary orbit was a major advance. We are now at a point where most of the global megaflash hotspots are covered by a geostationary satellite—and data processing techniques have improved to properly represent flashes in the vast quantity of observational data at all scales," "The only lightning-safe locations are substantial buildings that have wiring and plumbing; not structures such as at a beach or bus stop. The second reliably safe location is inside a fully enclosed metal-topped vehicle; not dune buggies or motorcycles," warned WMO lightning expert Walt Lyons. "As these extreme cases show, lightning can arrive within seconds over a long distance." Other notable lightning records The WMO has recorded other noteworthy lightning events, including: The longest-lasting flash at 17.1 seconds over Uruguay and northern Argentina in 2020. The deadliest direct strike, which killed 21 people in Zimbabwe in 1975. The worst indirect strike, which killed 469 people in Egypt in 1994 after lightning ignited oil tanks that flooded the town of Dronka. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about lightning? Let us know via science@ Reference Peterson et al. (2025). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
