By Michael Marshall
S. Garcia Cournoyer / Alamy
The biggest lightning flash on record spanned 709 kilometres – about the distance from London to Geneva, and more than twice the previous record.
A second flash has set a world record for longest duration. The flash went on for 16.7 seconds, also more than twice the previous record.
“We identified two new lightning flashes that are substantially bigger than anything we’ve ever seen before,” says Randall Cerveny of Arizona State University in the US.
Until recently, lightning was primarily tracked …
