The magnetosphere and the lightning situation.
The lightning part has gone mainstream. Expect it to get linked to "climate change".
Megaflashes in the United States
Two “mesoscale convective systems” merged over Kansas City on June 4, as seen in this GOES East satellite image. They are the same type of massive thunderstorm clusters that triggered extreme discharges over South America. (RAMMB/CIRA) 3822
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Megaflashes aren’t unique to South America. In fact, we have them here in the United States, too — but only in recent years has technology become sufficiently supportive to allow atmospheric scientists the ability to map their electric tendrils.
The WMO noted that the recently verified records beat a previous record holder for long-distance flashes — a 200-mile-long discharge above Oklahoma on June 20, 2007.
An even more impressive discharge, which eventually spanned 300 miles but was not evaluated by the WMO, occurred in a similar area on the morning of Oct. 23, 2017. A thunderstorm raged near Thackerville, Okla., a little more than an hour’s drive north of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. A lightning strike illuminated skies near the Red River — Oklahoma’s southern border — at 12:13 a.m.
At the same time, the heavens were also ablaze near Burlington, Kan., as tendrils of spider lightning crawled eerily along the underbelly of a massive line of severe thunderstorms.
The two flashes — more than 300 miles apart — were connected to the same massive lightning bolt. The lightning strike was longer than the distance from Washington, D.C., to Hartford, Conn., and illuminated an area four times larger than the state of Connecticut.
Satellite detection
"For years, lightning has been treated as a local event. It results from an imbalance of electrical charge. When the buildup of a charge difference overwhelms the “dielectric strength” of air, a spark jumps between the two charges. But emerging research reveals that some lightning events may be “mesoscale” in nature"
washingtonpost.com
usatoday.com
phys.org
A new world record lightning strike of 440 miles has been confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization, according to a Thursday announcement.
The "megaflash" traveled that distance over parts of southern Brazil on Oct. 31, 2018, the WMO said. This is equivalent to the distance between Washington, DC, and Boston.
In addition to the longest flash in terms of distance, a world record for longest lightning strike in terms of time was also announced: A single flash lasted 16.73 seconds over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019.
[Other previously accepted WMO lightning extremes are:Direct strike: 21 people killed by a single flash of lightning as they huddled for safety in a hut in Zimbabwe in 1975.Indirect strike: 469 people killed in Dronka Egypt when lightning struck a set of oil tanks, causing burning oil to flood the town in 1994. public.wmo.int ]
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“These are extraordinary records from single lightning flash events," said Arizona State University Professor Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for the WMO, in a statement. "Environmental extremes are living measurements of what nature is capable, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments.
"It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves,” he said.
The record "megaflashes" were detected with help from lightning detection equipment on board satellites in orbit around the Earth.
A megaflash is defined as horizontal lightning discharges that reach hundreds of kilometers in length.
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