France strikes with longest-lasting lightning bolt
At a little over seven seconds France's lasts the longest but America's is by far the biggest.
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.
© 2016 AFP
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France strikes with longest-lasting lightning bolt (2016, September 16)
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