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(WGNO) — Officials have certified a new record for the longest lightning strike in the world.
According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the single flash of lightning stretched 477.2 miles from eastern Texas, through Louisiana, and into southern Mississippi.
This beats the previous record for longest distance for a single flash of 440.6 miles set in Brazil back in 2018.
The WMO also announced a new record for the longest-lasting lightning strike with a duration of 17.102 seconds over Uruguay and northern Argentina.
The agency says the two new world records were broken in “in notorious megaflash hotspots.”
