Environment A massive lightning ‘megaflash’ set a world record — it stretched for a whopping 515 miles By Brooke Steinberg Published July 31, 2025, 3:32 p.m. ET ...

Lightning is a familiar sight in stormy skies, but a new report has revealed just how far some bolts can travel — in one case, more than 500 miles.

A reanalysis of satellite data shows that a 2017 Texas-to-Missouri lightning megaflash stretched 829 kilometers and lasted 7.39 seconds.

A lightning “mega-flash” over the US Great Plains region stretching 829 kilometres, or around 515 miles, has been identified as the longest on record.

In October 2017, lightning flashed across the sky in America’s heartland. But this wasn’t your average storm. The single, enormous bolt—known as a “megaflash”—stretched across multiple ...