A lightning bolt spanning nearly 500 miles was visible in the skies across at least three US states. This is a new "world record" (if it can be measured that way), scientists have concluded. The previous "record" was observed in 2020. It was a lightning bolt approximately 477 miles long (768 km) that stretched across the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The record prior to that was recorded in Brazil in 2018, measuring 440.6 miles (or 709 km).

As is known, lightning rarely exceeds 10 miles in length and usually lasts for less than a second.