Record length lightning bolt over Brazil 

 

https://www.livescience.com/worlds-biggest-lightning-bolt-halloween-brazil.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dlvr.it&fbclid=IwAR2Pi3uSrzXjQIsifxCuRssuyqp8sCG5_tZQzsqHjV7Gq80jMe5jP4flOwE

 

Saw that last night and it blew my mind. I hadn't ever clocked that lightning bolts could travel more than a couple of miles.

---

To put that into perspective, that is longer than the distance between where I am here in Edinburgh, and somewhere down in London. It's amazing to think that lightning bolts can get as long as that, especially as most thunderstorms here in the UK, tend to be very localised events.

---

Saw that last night and it blew my mind. I hadn't ever clocked that lightning bolts could travel more than a couple of miles.

That's what I would have thought, if I had ever really considered the matter before now. However it looks like any individual 'strike' can be part of a very complex system, and what we might see from the ground could be just a very small proportion of that. Thinking about it, from watching the lightning radar strikes do often seem to ocurr in 'clusters' all at the same time over a certain area, though hardly an Edinburgh to London distance!

---

Interesting, so presumably the duration of the rumble of thunder you hear is related to the length of the lightening bolt? If so, then the sound following that one in Brazil would have lasted a relatively long time. Any clever folks out there care to work it out?

Equally amazing was the longest duration for a lightning strike at some 16 seconds in Argentina.. jaw dropping 😯

I don't think the length would make a huge difference on the duration of the rumble as it's more the reverberation of the sound waves..

but that 16 second flash would have made some sound.

Amazing - I had no idea lightning could travel that far.

---