France strikes with longest-lasting lightning bolt
- By AFP -
- Sep 16, 2016
The UN World Meteorological Organization on Friday announced that France held the record for longest-lasting lightning bolt, with a flash on August 30, 2012 in the southeast of France lighting up the sky for a full 7.74 seconds.
The horizontal bolt travelled 200 kilometres (125 miles), the WMO’s Rapporteur of Weather & Climate Extremes, Randall Cerveny, told AFP.
“It was a “cloud-to-cloud” discharge,” Cerveny said.
France was bested, however, in the distance stakes by the US.
A lightning strike on June 20, 2007 in the state of Oklahoma covered a distance of 321 kilometres, the WMO said.