The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has certified a jaw-dropping new world record for the longest single lightning flash ever recorded. The lightning coursed a staggering 515 miles across the southern United States—travelling all the way from eastern Texas to near Kansas City,

Guinness World Records may be the go-to organization for measuring the extent of (sometimes dubious) human achievement, but for natural phenomena, the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) Committee on Weather and Climate Extremes sets the bar.

A lightning flash tore across the sky above the Great Plains, stretching across a staggering 515 miles (829 kilometers) from eastern Texas to Kansas City. That “megaflash” shattered the previous record for longest lightning flash of 477 miles (768 kilometers), set in 2023.