Honey locust lightning strike

Wow, that was a high energy hit, ...

jamiedonaldson

......and this time of year when trees have high moisture levels makes the explosion even worse. The electricity converts the sap to steam in a flash, causing most of the tree trunk to explode. Over the years that I managed trees on our golf course, I observed that in spring walnut trees were often the most likely to be lightning struck, and this may be due to the early and heavy sap flowing up the tree that makes them basically lightning rods.

Wow,thats power

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

John K Jordan

Zounds. Imagine trying to get out of the rain by standing under a tree.

My youngest son was driving the lane through our woods when lightning struck big poplar maybe 20' from the driver's door. He said it was loud. (!!) I have a number of very tall trees here that have a strip down one side blown out, some obviously a bunch of decades ago.

JKJ

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Bill Blasic

I had a Cherry tree hit like that and some of the pieces went 50 + yards.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Mike Stafford

That is an amazing photo. Aren't you glad you weren't there to experience that explosion.

A number of years ago a friend of ours had a tall poplar tree at the back lot line hit by lightning. Just like the tree you showed it exploded sending fragments of tree hundreds of feet in every direction. Some fragments ended up in their front yard and on the roof of their house more than 100 feet away.

The worst part of the entire episode was that they lost both heat pumps, their televisions, refrigerator, computer, and everything else electrical that was plugged in at the time. There never was a good explanation of how the electricity managed to flow through the ground to their home and overload everything that was plugged in.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Mark Wollschlager

Wow.

That is some stringy wood.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Barry Irby

Years ago lightning hit a poplar tree about 10' from a friend's deck. It had a huge bulge in it like some of palm trees after the lightening. The bulge was basically mush. Slivers the size of toothpicks flew out and hit the old dry treated wood deck frame. They were imbedded like whiskers. You could not pull them out without breaking them. Always been glad I was not on the deck when it happened.

That is one amazing picture. I thought you were going to show us a picture of something turn out of wood from a tree that had been struck. Not from that tree.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Cameron

Is there enough left to make a wonderboy bat and start a MLB career?

Imagine instantly boiling 1000 gallons of water

Steven Antonucci

Lightning can be in excess of 50,000 F. That's 5X hotter than the sun. I think I saw something that said water is 40% of a health tree's weight. and bark is there to keep moisture in.

looks like a direct hit...

S

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

JohnV

lighting most likely flowed thru the ground and caused a ground surge. Happened to us four years ago. Lightning can cause some weird things.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

George Balock

Looks like it’s already converted to pen blanks.

Re: Imagine instantly boiling 1000 gallons of wate

Dick Hines

In my 40+ years with the phone company I have seen some strange things done by lightning. We went to great care to make sure everything was grounded. Some times it worked and some times it did not

YIKES!!!

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

Keith Newton

Back when I was running, I was out on a gated forest road in Ouachita NF. I found a piece of fresh sapwood about 2x2x6" laying in the road. There were no track since the last frost heave months earlier. I stood there inspecting and scratching my head, then decided to short cut back over the ridge back to the truck. About 200 yards away I came up on a tree about like that, except the bottom 8' was still standing. The upper was mostly hanging off the limbs of surrounding trees like spaghetti.

I puzzled over that about 15 years when I think I found the cause. I cut a Black Tupelo tree which was a bout 24" D, for a huge burl about 30' up. When I cut into it, I got soaked when the chain penetrated a column of water that must have been full up to that burl. The stream shot straight out about 8' for longer than I expected.

Normally when lightning strikes a tree it is on the outside, maybe following a little stream of gritty tea that flows down from the main branches. Those little streams instantly turn to steam, which can completely knock the bark off, or just bruise the cambium enough to loosen the bark that stays intact, which is worse than blowing it off, since insects will move into the space and set up housekeeping.

If a hollow tree holds a column of water, like the one I described in the first paragraph and maybe this one, when the plasma arc goes through the water and turns it all to steam in the blink of an eye that would make a huge explosion.

Re: Honey locust lightning strike

AZ in Colorado Springs

About 1990, we were living on the air force academy. On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, as we were sitting down to supper, lightning hit the tree located about 25 feet from the back door. I was just turning on the kitchen light and I was facing the back window, about 2' x 2'. I felt a tingle in my fingertips and the window became pure white for an instant. The TV in the living room went silent.

The tree had a bare section about 6' x 6" and there was bark lying on the ground.

The dog was on the back porch at the time. She never got with 20' of that tree ever again. I think she considered it possessed.

I guess this could've turned out a lot worse. (The TV required one new part--it was an inexpensive repair.)

Imagine instantly boiling 1000 gallons of water

Tom Colligan

It's hard to believe that people (golfers) have been struck by lightning and survived though usually with nerve damage.