Lightning strike

coyote101 · January 07, 2016, 07:27:05 PM

I was walking through the woods yesterday afternoon when I noticed some fresh chunks of wood strewn across the ground. I've seen this before so I started looking for the source. It didn't take long to find it.

Strips of missing bark and wood.....

......running from the ground......

...... to near the top of the tree.

Lightning strike from a storm last week.

Debris field; the light colored pieces are some of the chunks blown out of the tree. It's probably thirty feet to the far piece.

Pat

FinsnFur · January 07, 2016, 08:35:16 PM

How come I've never seen that? Maybe I did and it wasnt fresh enough to stand out. Thats pretty cool. Creepy but cool.

coyote101 · January 07, 2016, 08:41:34 PM

I had a 100+ foot tulip poplar in my yard that got struck twice over the years. It blew about a three inch wide and two inch deep gash from the ground to as high as you could see up the tree. Wood chunks and splinters all over the yard on that side of the tree. I eventually had to have it taken down. Tree guys get a lot to cut down and remove a hundred foot tree.

Pat

Hawks Feather · January 07, 2016, 09:22:41 PM

With my luck I would have been in a tree stand when the tree got hit.

Jerry

trailtwister · January 08, 2016, 08:22:36 AM

Seen it several times. Makes good fire wood too. Yes even popple will burn, got a stack in my wood pile as I type this.

Al

pitw · January 08, 2016, 11:41:19 AM

That's cool as [L]. Have seen a few trees struck by lightning, even cooked a weiner inside one that was struck and burned from the core out.

Okanagan · January 08, 2016, 12:03:38 PM

Glad you were not close when it hit! Very cool pics.

bambam · January 08, 2016, 11:00:25 PM

Quote from: pitw on January 08, 2016, 11:41:19 AM
That's cool as [L]. Have seen a few trees struck by lightning, even cooked a weiner inside one that was struck and burned from the core out.

I've seen trees struck by lightning before, but only you would think of roasting a weiner inside one .

Dale · January 09, 2016, 12:39:02 PM

there was a large pin oak out on the old homestead that was planted around the time I was born, it was over 60 years old... it had taken a lightning strike years back that shattered the structural integrity of the tree, but it still grew...

my sister finally decided it was getting old and raggedy enough that it was threatening the garage so she had it taken down... I helped the guy that took it down, to cut it up and see if there was anything left for lumber...

nary a board foot could be cut out of a 70' tall oak tree... between the lightning damage and wind twist damage, the whole tree wasn't hardly worth firewood... we had a firewood processer on site to work it up and cut into 16" lengths, when you tried to split it, it came apart in splinters... nastiest stuff you ever seen, was glad to get rid of and done with it...

riverboss · January 09, 2016, 02:42:37 PM

I have seen it happen first hand while getting stuck in a storm while turkey hunting.
Its very loud and frightening I threw my gun across the field and hit the ground!
I couldn't see anything but the bright flash till it was over but you could feel it in your body. The tree looked like those with bark smoking.

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