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.

In October 2017, lightning flashed across the sky in America’s heartland. But this wasn’t your average storm. The single, enormous bolt—known as a “megaflash”—stretched across multiple states, from eastern Texas to west-central Missouri,