Image from NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite of the thunderstorm complex that produced the megaflash lightning bolt on October 22, 2017. [Image credit: NOAA/Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)]

August 5, 2025 - Sparked by a major thunderstorm complex rumbling over the Great Plains, a single megaflash lightning bolt captured by NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite was recently certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the world’s longest flash on record. The horizontal distance of the bolt stretched 515 miles (829 km) from eastern Texas to near Kansas City, Mo., when it flashed across the sky on October 22, 2017. 

This particular flash was not identified in the original 2017 analysis of the thunderstorm, but was discovered through a recent re-examination. It is nearly 38 miles (61 km) longer than the previous record-setting flash that lit up the southern U.S. on April 29, 2020, which was also verified through GOES-16 satellite imagery.

Learn more about the record lightning strike in the WMO press release.

Source: NOAA