‘Not sure this is a good sign for Earth’: Long Island man captures ‘10-mile-long’ lightning bolt

A video of a lightning bolt, which reportedly was 10 miles long, captured by a former firefighter, has surfaced on social media. Recorded over Bayport, Long Island, the video shows the bolt illuminating the night sky.

A huge lightning bolt that shocked the firefighter who captured it. (Facebook/Islandwide Weather)

Retired FDNY fireman Kenny Gunther shared the video with Islandwide Weather’s Facebook page. “ONE OF THE SICKEST BOLTS OF LIGHTNING I’VE EVER SEEN ON LONG ISLAND!!!!!!! Just south of Bayport, NY,” the page wrote.

According to a report by the New York Post, Gunther was at his home when he felt the floor under his feet shaking. He then saw a flash outside his window.

“I just grabbed my iPhone and I just stick it on the windowsill in my bedroom facing south with their widest angle, and I just had it record,” he said.

He added, “I turn all the lights off and I’m just sitting there quiet. And then all of a sudden I saw that lightning and I said, ‘Oh my God, I think I just got that!’ And I went back and watched it and I said, ‘Holy cow, that is freaking amazing.’”

Gunther said that the lightning was so long that he couldn’t record it for its entire length. “It actually went out of frame. That thing had to be 10 miles wide,” he said, adding, “And that one wasn’t even that much of a clap of thunder. But the one before that was, that’s the one that shook the house.”

How did social media react?

An individual wrote, “I’m pretty sure this was the bolt I caught in Holtsville. Horizontal just like that. I said ‘Whoa, that was sick’ lol.” Another added, “Craziest thing I’ve ever seen! It lit up the sky in one spot and then just rolled across, lighting the dark part of the sky as it went along. Then, a few seconds later, the thunder matched!”

A third expressed, “Literally lit up my entire house. I thought a nuke dropped. I didn’t know what to do.” A fourth remarked, “The Lightning was insane! Our outdoor light sensor flickered like crazy every time a bolt shot across the sky.”

A worried social media user commented, “Not sure this is a good sign for Earth.”