Every day more than 17 million lightning strikes the Earth; 200 per second. Lightning is an electric shock of up to 30 million volts , enough to light a city of 200,000 for one minute. It reaches a temperature five times higher than the temperature of the Sun’s surface: 30,000 ºC.
All this the average. Because there are much more spectacular rays. The record, in that sense, has been obtained by two lightning strikes in Brazil and Argentina.
Duration and length
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has set two new world records for the longest distance and duration reported for lightning, respectively, in Brazil and Argentina. They more than double the previous values measured in the United States and France.
WMO has recognized 2 new world records for a single #lightning #megaflash
Longest distance: 709 km (440.6 miles), #Brazil, 31.10.2018
Longest duration 16.7 seconds, #Argentina, 4.3.2019
DOUBLE the previous records
Verified with new satellite lightning imagery technology pic.twitter.com/DfG9NUrjEl— World Meteorological Organization (@WMO) June 26, 2020
- Length: The largest extension traveled in the world by a single lightning strike is a lightning strike that covered a horizontal distance of 709 +/- 8 kilometers through parts of southern Brazil on October 31, 2018.
- Duration: The maximum duration of a single lightning strike has been 16.73 seconds of an electric shock that continuously developed over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019.