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,

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. 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.

A lightning flash tore across the sky above the Great Plains, stretching across a staggering 515 miles (829 kilometers) from eastern Texas to Kansas City. That “megaflash” shattered the previous record for longest lightning flash of 477 miles (768 kilometers), set in 2023.