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Lightning continues to be one of Mother Nature's most dangerous outbursts, with a two-decade average of 51 deaths per year in the United States attributed to deadly lightning bolts, and Wyoming being the worst place to be when stormy skies become electrified. Officials confirmed two ‘megaflash’ lightning bolts in Brazil and Argentina that struck down previous world records Lightning flashes over Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2014. According to a new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), this epic "megaflash" was the That claim now belongs to Brazil, whose southern skies were ablaze with jagged arcs of electricity back on Halloween Night, October 31, 2018, when a single 440-mile-long bolt blazed out of the spooky, supercharged atmosphere. No ground-based image of the record-breaking 440-mile-long bolt was actually captured. Lightning occurs when cold air and warm air collide inside thunderstorms, Live Science previously reported. These advanced tools include the Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on NASA's R-series Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-16 and 17) — which observed these dazzling new lightning records — and their European counterparts, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) Lightning Imager, and China's FY-4 Lightning Mapping Imager. AN EPIC lightning flash over Brazil has just been labelled as the single longest lightning bolt ever recorded. That's an astonishing distance that's almost the length of the state of Florida. 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In a second world record certification perhaps just as scary, a different megaflash that occurred in northern Argentina on March 4, 2019 just became the longest reported single lightning bolt, after being clocked in at a hair-raising 16.73 seconds. It's official, the United States can no longer brag about hosting the longest lightning strike ever recorded. “These are extraordinary records from single lightning flash events. Like Comic-Con. The lightning bolt was picked up on this satellite image Credit: WMO. A single gargantuan lightning bolt sliced through the atmosphere over the country's southern tip, stretching more than 440 miles (700 kilometers) from the Atlantic coast into the edge of Argentina. Update your browser for more security and the best experience on this site. It was so big, in fact, that it's prompted calls for a rewrite of the official definition of a lightning strike - seeing as before this, it was assumed that … The team's findings were published by the American Geophysical Union’s Geophysical Research Letters on June 24, just prior to International Lightning Safety Day on June 28. By submitting your information, you agree to our, A megaflash seen over Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Jan. 15, 2014. According to a new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), this epic "megaflash" was the single longest lightning bolt ever recorded. The previous record-setter flashed over France for 7.74 seconds in August 2012. Could a laser pointer be just as effective as Mjolnir in controlling lightning? Can you guess the capital of these countries? It's official, the United States can no longer brag about hosting the longest lightning strike ever recorded. Environmental extremes are living measurements of what nature is capable, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments. Related slideshow: 125 Facts That Will Make You Feel Instantly Smarter (provided by Best Life), Like us on Facebook to see similar stories. In addition to the nearly 440-mile-long bolt (long enough to connect Boston to Washington, D.C., or Toronto to Chicago), the new analysis also revealed a new record-breaker for longest bolt duration. The professional weather watchers studied the two events utilizing new satellite lightning imagery technology to award Brazil and Argentina their electrifying titles. Using new satellite technology, scientists confirmed that the epic bolt was more than twice as long as the previous record-holder, a 200-mile-long (320 km) bolt that blazed over Oklahoma in 2007.