lightning strike?

[Sigarms]

Came home on Friday in some nasty weather.

Found this on the front lawn



Wife works out of the house writing programs, she mentioned she didn't hear anything.

I would of expected more charring from lighting.

 

[rekees4300]

Is the black from charring or water rot? Perhaps high wind split the fork?

 

[Sigarms]

The tree was solid, even in the black area.

The other side of exposed tree (not seen in pic) had the same blackness, but again, still very solid. No signs of rot whatsoever.

Only two trailers worth of limbs this morning LOL

 

[zzvyb6]

Steam induced blowout from a lightning strike. You don't hear these like you would a gunshot. Its a 2 second 'sizzle' usually. The voice of experience. My house has been hit by lightning 3 times. Nearest tree once (that was a sizzle, too. No more strikes since I put up a few farm windmill towers a dozen years ago or so.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sure looks like a lightning strike to me. How close to the house is that?

A friend of a friend had a tree hit by lightning out in their yard. You can see the burn line going around the bark in a spiral as it traveled the length of the tree. Like somebody had sprayed it with spray paint trying to make it look like a candy cane.

Rule of thumb is that when you see it, you count out the seconds until you hear it. If you hear it before you get to five, your life is in extreme danger. One of the kids I went to High School with died on the top of Half Dome Yosemite from a lightning strike. No warning, it just hit out of nowhere!!! If I see lightning anywhere in the sky when out mowing or working on the land, I call it a day and get indoors.

I've had several strikes so close to my house that the flash and boom where at the same instant. Shakes the house type of boom, but for the life of me, I've never been able to find where it hit.

This past Spring, the guy I buy my hay from was driving down Interstate 20 at the speed limit, 75 mph, give or take, and his two month old one ton Dodge duelly was hit by lightning. It basically fried all his electronics and wiring in the truck. He is under warrantee and he has full insurance. So far the dealer has put $20,000 into the repairs and it still isn't right. He wants a new truck, but nobody is listening to him.

 

[teejk]

Sure looks like a lightning strike to me. How close to the house is that?

A friend of a friend had a tree hit by lightning out in their yard. You can see the burn line going around the bark in a spiral as it traveled the length of the tree. Like somebody had sprayed it with spray paint trying to make it look like a candy cane.

Rule of thumb is that when you see it, you count out the seconds until you hear it. If you hear it before you get to five, your life is in extreme danger. One of the kids I went to High School with died on the top of Half Dome Yosemite from a lightning strike. No warning, it just hit out of nowhere!!! If I see lightning anywhere in the sky when out mowing or working on the land, I call it a day and get indoors.

I've had several strikes so close to my house that the flash and boom where at the same instant. Shakes the house type of boom, but for the life of me, I've never been able to find where it hit.

This past Spring, the guy I buy my hay from was driving down Interstate 20 at the speed limit, 75 mph, give or take, and his two month old one ton Dodge duelly was hit by lightning. It basically fried all his electronics and wiring in the truck. He is under warrantee and he has full insurance. So far the dealer has put $20,000 into the repairs and it still isn't right. He wants a new truck, but nobody is listening to him.

Decades ago I was delivering the morning newspaper on my bike (BS route because it was 1 1/2 miles from north to south, probably 1 mile east west and all papers had to be delivered to the front door...nobody was ever happy). Anyway, mid-route I still remember the "flash/boom" (no time to count to 5 there) and what I think was a bright red ball in the sky. I quit delivering papers that day.

 

[teejk]

Came home on Friday in some nasty weather.

Found this on the front lawn

View attachment 475493

Wife works out of the house writing programs, she mentioned she didn't hear anything.

I would of expected more charring from lighting.

Some people say steam blow-out...I always thought that it was a sap thing. Concept is the same but I've never seen it without hearing a loud noise. I'm guessing wind damage.

 

[Sigarms]

Some people say steam blow-out...I always thought that it was a sap thing. Concept is the same but I've never seen it without hearing a loud noise. I'm guessing wind damage.

My first guess was wind damage as well. The black however is like a spray paint and doesn't seem naturally occuring from the tree itself. That's what had me perplexed.

Eddie, the tree is about 50 yrds from the house.

 

[oosik]

Like Eddie said - I've had many "flash/booms" over the years but never found where any lightning has hit. About 25 years ago lightning hit the top of a huge pine tree, about half way down the property, and it started a fire on the top. The storm/lightning/thunder woke us and we watched out the living room window. As the storm passed, the "light" down the property remained. So as the sun came up I went down to see what it was all about and saw this fire on the tree top. I finally had to fall the tree and put the fire out.

I've often wondered if the few large pines with the dead tops were caused by lightning but none of them have the "typical" spiral burn mark running down the trunk.

 

[MossRoad]

When harvesting firewood from live trees I cut down, and splitting fork sections, I find many that have black in them. I think it was split already, had a little rot in it (the black stuff), and wind brought it down. It looks like a fairly narrow fork in the tree, and those are usually the weakest. Usually, if there's some sort of lighting strike, you'll see a strip of bark peeled off down the tree on the outside. If the tree was dead already, I'd be more inclined to see charring. But that tree looks to be alive, and it would have just been blown out, not charred like that in such a wide area. Just my opinion, of course. Lighting is pretty crazy stuff.

 

[MossRoad]

Anyway.... anyone see this video today? Really great video of lighting strike on telephone pole. Switches to great slow-motion half way through, so watch it all the way. :thumbsup:

 

[rekees4300]

WOW some serious power to do that.

 

[k0ua]

Looks like about 5 lbs of C4..:laughing:

 

[Ford850]

The trees I've seen hit are blown apart somewhat. One, about 75 yards from my house when I lived in town, was hit hard. That was a simultaneous Flash-Boom. It peeled nearly every piece of bark off the tree, leaving a stark white naked tree standing in a row of other trees that looked untouched. The bark looked like mulch, scattered all around the tree, some of it over 50' away. I wish I took a picture of that one.

 

[the old grind]

When harvesting firewood from live trees I cut down, and splitting fork sections, I find many that have black in them. I think it was split already, had a little rot in it (the black stuff), and wind brought it down. It looks like a fairly narrow fork in the tree, and those are usually the weakest. Usually, if there's some sort of lighting strike, you'll see a strip of bark peeled off down the tree on the outside. If the tree was dead already, I'd be more inclined to see charring. But that tree looks to be alive, and it would have just been blown out, not charred like that in such a wide area. Just my opinion, of course. Lighting is pretty crazy stuff.

Agree on all points, esp parts underscored. Big elm lightning rod here has wide expanses of bare wood showing where successive strikes have deterred healing of the bark.

 

[dodge man]

I've seen a couple of trees that were hit by lighting. They usually are split and kind of blown out in several places. I also think its just wind damage.