The 'supercharged' thunderstorm crackled with an unholy 2,600 flashes every minute at its peak.
at its peak, totaling nearly 200,000 flashes overall.
"The scale of these lightning rings blew our minds," Van Eaton said. "We've never seen anything like that before, there's nothing comparable in meteorological storms."Van Eaton explains that Hunga's eruption — which itself is one of the most powerful in history — blasted molten rock and volcanic ash through the ocean, sending a towering plume over 36 miles into the air.
Now, all mixed together in a hellish brew, the collisions between the ash and the water generated incredible amounts of electricity — the ideal environment for lightning. From carefully combining the data, Van Eaton and her team observed the astonishing 192,000 lightning strikes, some originating from an "unprecedented" altitude of 19 miles.
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