We have just measured the longest ray ever registered on Earth: 829 kilometers D

The rays are huge electrical discharges that in a fraction of second run through the distance between the clouds and the surface of the earth, a distance that can be several kilometers. However, lightning can go to distances a pair of superior magnitude orders. And this is one of those cases. The longest ray. The World Meteorological Organization has confirmed The longest ray observation ever registered. The electric shock toured a distance of 829 kilometers, with a margin of error of about 8 km. To put it in perspective, that is approximately the distance that separates in a straight line Barcelona from Seville. Although the validation by the United Nations Meteorological Office arrived this Thursday, the event occurred almost eight years ago, In October 2017in the United States. The great plains. The ray with its ramifications reached the skies of five states in the central and southern United States. The beginning of his “route” was on the east of the state of Texas, and his end was close to Kansas City, in Missouri. His tour and ramifications also made him pass through the states of Arkansasa, Kansas and Oklahoma. The region of the great plains where lightning was also known as Tornado Alleythe “Alley of Tornados”. This area, the OMM points out, stands out for being one of the areas “with the greatest storm activity known as Mesoescala convective systems”, which also makes it an ideal area for the formation of these “megarrayos.” For 61 km. As explained by the OMM, the new record exceeds 61 km the previous record. That ray also happened in the United States, but later, in April 2020, and reached 768 km, also with a margin of error of 8 km. In both cases, the detection and measurement of these rays was carried out through a method called Maximum Circle Arch. In addition, the OMM emphasizes that the 2017 ray was one of the first events measured with the help of the operational geostationary satellite for the study of the environment of the R (GOES-16) of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). They also explain that this “megary” went unnoticed in a first analysis of the storm, and was not discovered until the review of the data compiled during the stormy episode. Now the details of the analysis carried out by the OMM team have been published In a working document of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Improving prevention. The study of the rays goes beyond establishing records that feed our curiosity about these violent phenomena. Improving our study tools and knowing these events better is key to reducing the risk they imply in several contexts, from aviation to forest fires. “Rays, although they are a source of astonishment, also constitute a great danger that is charged numerous lives every year worldwide, which makes these phenomena one of the priorities of the international initiative an early warns for all,” pointed in a press release Celeste Saulo, general secretary of the OMM. “This record highlights important issues for public security with respect to electrified clouds, (…) that may have serious repercussions on the aviation sector, as well as cause forest fires.” Carrying the accounts. The OMM is the institution in charge of Register extreme atmospheric events Throughout the world, an archive that has other records protected by great magnitude rays. For examplethe lightest ray registered lasted no less than 17 seconds (17,102 ± 0.002 s, specifically), and was captured in Argentina in June 2020. The direct impact of greater size was recorded in 1975 in Zimbabwe, and cost the lives of 21 people. However, the greatest indirect impact occurred in 1994, in Dronka (Egypt), and resulted in 469 people deceased when causing the fire of oil deposits. In Xataka | Two years ago a cosmic ray hit the earth. No one knows where it came from Image | Pixabay (File image)

It is more likely to reach a ray to touch your lottery. Until an economist broke the game winning 14 times

The lottery is more an act of faith than anything else. I don’t say it, Mathematics say. In fact, there is more likely to be a ray to become a millionaire at night. It is possible that all that of the same, and that even knowing that we will not touch us, let’s continue playing to feel part of something. The problem is that there are legends that They talk about tricks and Formulas To win. And then there is the story of Stefan Mandel. A mathematical mind. In the mid-1990s, while millions of people worldwide continue Murify the rules Not written from the lottery applying, not magic or superstition, but an elementary probability system and a colossal logistics. The “trick.” His formula was as basic as radical: identify those draws in which the accumulated prize It exceeded by far the total cost of acquiring all possible tickets. By converting a problem of chance into a mathematical operation with a positive statistical return, Mandel transformed the game into a profitability equation. After successfully trying his system in his native Romania and then in Australia, Mandel perfected his strategy With a small team, developing algorithms that generated and printed millions of valid combinations for specific lotteries. The jump to Washington. The high point of his odyssey came when he looked at the United States, where he detected that Virginia’s newly established lottery used only 44 numbersgenerating “barely” 7,059,052 possible combinations. With the boat reaching 15.5 million dollars, and after having prepared in advance A network of investorsprinters and points of sale, Mandel activated his machinery. For two frantic days, his team managed to buy 6.4 million tickets. They did not reach the desired total, but among the paper mountain was the winning ticket. Although the feat unleashed an investigation by the FBI and the CIA, no legal violation was detected: its maneuver, although clearly outside the spirit of the game, it did not transgress any norm written in the regulations in force. The boundaries of chance. The key to the mandel method was not in sophisticated numerical tricks, but to detect when the conditions of the game offered A structural advantage. In this way, its formula only worked when the prize I tripled the cost To acquire all combinations and when lottery systems allowed printing tickets directly with chosen combinations, a possibility that was later prohibited in many countries precisely by cases such as yours. Winning horse. In essence, its strategy converted the lottery into A safe betprovided that resources, time and discipline were available to execute a plan of such magnitude. However, the profit margin was not immediate: Mandel had to distribute the profits between dozens of investors and assume considerable operational and legal costs. Even so, the system allowed him Win 14 lotteries over several years and knead a considerable fortune without resorting to traps or privileged contacts, only to applied mathematics with implacable determination. Legacy and sunset. After his last significant victory, Mandel He retired to a paradise in the Vanuatu Islands, where he lives away from media foci. Its history, however, not only challenges the myth of fate in games of chance, but has become A mathematical legend which highlights the design gaps of many lottery systems before digitalization. Today, with stricter regulations, limits in the purchase of tickets and automated systems, replicate its model It would be unfeasible. Thus, its feat remains one of the most forceful demonstrations of how human ingenuity, when it faces in intelligence and rigor, can alter the balance of the improbable. Image | Barcex In Xataka | We all know that the lottery will not touch us. It doesn’t matter: we play for feeling part of something In Xataka | The trick to prevent the Treasury from staying with 20% of the Lottery Award has a trick. And is called the income statement

After the hottest June in the history of Spain, there is a minimum ray of light on the horizon: Vaguadas

The heat wave It comes to an end, although the high temperatures will fad down gradually between today and Thursday. The heat wave has been the culminating point of a series of warm episodes that have been repeated since the end of May and, like so many of these episodes, has seen its end with the arrival of a trough and important associated storms. A record heat. Meteorologists advance that the month of June has been the hottest since we have records. And that It is not the only record that has broken during the last 30 days. The absolute temperature record was also broken for a month of June. It happened in the Huelva municipality of El Granado, where the thermometers They got to register a maximum of 46º. As if this were not enough, June He has also pulverized Another record, that of the greatest positive thermal anomaly, 3rd Celsius above what would be common during the sixth month of the year. All that despite the fact that a month with marked meteorological fluctuations in which extreme heat episodes with brief but intense storm episodes have alternated. It has been the tonic of recent weeks and everything indicates that once again it will be the storms that free us (for now) of heat. Summer troughs. Thermal relief will arrive pushed by arrival Of a series of troughs, the extensions of a area of ​​low pressures that will bring us cold air and atmospheric instability. It is expected that the arrival of the cold air associated with these troughs interact with the stagnant warm air mass on the peninsula and part of southern Europe. Storms and hail. THE RESULT: A NEW STORM REMESTING AND THE POSSIBILITY OF HEGHOE TO CHARGE STEPORS. The appearance of convective winds (resulting from the presence of warm and humid air that ascends to high layers of the atmosphere) is one of the key factors in this context. And what do the forecasts say? The State Meteorology Agency (Aemet) foresee that during the next few days the heat (still extreme in many areas) coexist with the proliferation of “locally strong” storms. Today these storms are expected in the mountains of the northern third and this peninsular; While tomorrow the mountainous areas of the entire northern half and surrounding areas could reach, as well as at northern plateau points, half north of the South Plateau and Sierra Nevada. Uncertainty. It is still early to foresee the weather tendency of the month of July but seasonal forecasts Aemet does not call optimism. A few weeks ago the agency spoke of a high probability that the summer of 2025 be remarkably warmer than usual. In Xataka | The first heat wave in Spain has brought a new epidemic in summer: deaths during working hours Image | ECMWF

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