Lightning is one of the most astonishing phenomena on Earth. It occurs when particles in clouds are jostled by turbulent weather conditions, causing them to rub against each other and generate large charges that discharge across the sky or between the sky and the ground. Measuring a giant flash is a challenging task that involves collecting satellite and ground-based data to reconstruct the event’s extent in three dimensions. GOES satellites play a crucial role in detecting these lightning strikes due to their continuous monitoring of the sky. The longest recorded lightning strike was identified in 2022, an enormous flash that lasted 17.102 seconds during a storm over Uruguay and Argentina in June 2020. Notably, both lightning strikes occurred in the same region, the “Great Plains of North America,” and a third is expected in the same area, as it is a major hotspot for medium-sized convective thunderstorms, which are most conducive to giant flashes.
