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.

Lightning struck and set a world record. The flash occurred in 2017 and spanned from eastern Texas to near west-central Missouri — a distance of 515 miles, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Eight years later, scientists have recognized the lightning flash as the longest ever documented.

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.