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The Hunga Tonga eruption sparked the highest-altitude lightning ever recorded

The plume from the 2022 eruption generated flashes up to 30 kilometers above sea level

A satellite image of the Hunga Tonga volcano when it erupted in 2022 with a large circle of smoke visible in the middle of blue water and other clouds.

The 2022 Hunga Tonga volcano eruption (shown in this image taken by a Japanese weather satellite) has added another superlative to its growing list of impressive stats: highest-altitude lightning flashes ever seen.

Japan Meteorology Agency via AP

By Skyler Ware

The Hunga Tonga volcano eruption continues to break records. Its latest? The highest altitudes that lightning has ever been known to start.