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France holds record for longest-lasting lightning bolt

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France holds record for longest-lasting lightning bolt
Spectacular lightening photographed in Florida. Photo: Donna Cooper/Flickr

At a little over seven seconds France's lasts the longest but America's is by far the biggest.

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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.

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