ATLANTA — It’s not often a scientist breaks a world record — let alone their own — but that’s exactly what Dr. Michael Peterson has done.

An applied physicist at the Severe Storms Research Center at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Peterson recently confirmed the longest horizontal lightning flash ever measured: a staggering 829 kilometers (or 515 miles). The bolt stretched across multiple states from near Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri.

“We actually found a new record for the largest horizontal lightning flash ever recorded,” Peterson said. “This is a flash that extended it as a single flash between Dallas, Texas to Kansas City, Missouri, so it spanned multiple states producing a lot of hazards for a large number of people.”

11Alive previously interviewed Dr. Peterson earl

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