Well, it's official. The single megaflash lighting bolt of 2017 was certified as the world’s longest flash on record. The lighting occurred on October 22, 2017, and the horizontal distance stretched 515 miles from east Texas to near Kansas City, Missouri, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A lightning strike that stretched from Texas to Missouri in 2017 was recently certified as the longest single lightning flash in recorded history. The strike stretched a distance that would take nearly nine hours to drive.

The World Meteorological Organization says a lightning bolt that was visible for some 515 miles from eastern Texas through Missouri in October 2017 is now considered to be the world’s longest.