Lightning strike

[Ausfahrt]

Lightning struck a couple of trees in our yard the other night. We found chunks of wood 70-80 yards away...pretty amazing. I will need to call a tree service and have the two affected trees removed.

I should have taken pics before I removed most of the debris but you can get a good idea of natures destructive power:

 

[Astro14]

Wow! Bet you heard that!

 

[Hokiefyd]

Lightning struck our neighbor's house a few weeks ago and burned it out. It's a total gut job. It actually struck the pine tree in the front yard and jumped to a corner of the attic. The house was actually empty and for sale; they just got PCS'd to Texas.

Are you sure the trees are dead? Pine trees get struck all the time here, and their bark blown off, but they survive well.

 

[IndyIan]

KaPOW!
We had a healthy pine (almost 2' diameter)actually catch fire at the base in our woods a few years ago. It burnt the heart wood about 5 feet up into the trunk(the sap wood barely burned) at the ground. I had the rest milled up and it was split all the way to 30' high...

 

[wander2039]

Reminds me of when I was a kid. Lightning hit a tree further back on the place and blew it apart literally. Killed a cow giving birth next to it also. I didn't go back there that summer the smell was horrendous!

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd

Are you sure the trees are dead? Pine trees get struck all the time here, and their bark blown off, but they survive well.


If the bark is blown off all the way around the tree, there's no way it can survive.

About 4 years ago, we had a live oak tree get struck. It didn't even blow the bark off, and in fact you had to look really hard to see the lightning track down the tree. We didn't even KNOW it had been struck until it started dying a few weeks later. We thought it was Oak Wilt because the leaves were turning brown from the veins outward just like that disease and immediately called some tree experts. They found the lightning track (narrow crack in the bark) and showed how you could pry the bark up starting at that track because the heat had separated the bark from the hardwood. They were right, it was completely dead within 6 months. The strike didn't blow the bark off, but it killed all the bark by heating the water to steam between the bark and hardwood.

 

[Kuato]

Trees are probably toast.

Have you called your homeowner's insurance company yet? Those trees might earn you a few hundred bucks. I know someone who lost a sycamore tree several years ago to lightning.....they got paid.

 

[ddrumman2004]

I saw the very same thing with a tree on my brother-in-laws property. Could never tell the tree had been struck until it started dying.

Had lightning strike a tree out front of my house a few years back and it more or less blew a big part of the upper part of the tree loose. That part of the tree stayed wedged in among the other limbs of trees next to it and finally fell to the ground last year.

Fuel for my fire pit.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
Have you called your homeowner's insurance company yet? Those trees might earn you a few hundred bucks. I know someone who lost a sycamore tree several years ago to lightning.....they got paid.


and then they have to pay back the money with increased premium...

 

[Win]

A large pine tree in my yard, about 4-5 times the volume of the pictured tree, took a small strike about four years ago, and it has survived.

You can still see the stripe down the tree if you know where to look.

My '04 GTO that was parked in the driveway underneath it was toasted. It appeared the energy jumped from the tree to the ham radio antenna, went from it into the electrical system on the car, and went to ground by blowing out, literally blowing out, some bits on the right front wheel of the car, ABS stuff, I guess. The GTO was just never quite right after that, hence the G8 in the fleet.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
I know someone who lost a sycamore tree several years ago to lightning.....they got paid.


I've got a Sycamore in my back yard and it is the dirtiest high maintenance piece of carp.... I wish a bolt of lightning would blow that sucker right out to the curb.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd

Are you sure the trees are dead? Pine trees get struck all the time here, and their bark blown off, but they survive well.


If the bark is blown off all the way around the tree, there's no way it can survive.


I agree, but it looks like all of the bark may not have blown off. Many times, you'll see a lightning "spiral" down a pine tree, with bark missing along the spiral. There are several "spiraled" trees in our neighborhood that survive and new bark eventually forms in the spiral. This one may be too far gone to save, I don't know. I'm just saying it may have a chance, depending on how severe the event was.

 

[morris]

my friend doesnt have power going to his cause he doesnt want it burn down. he had to go to court and get the judge to sign papers so the inspector would mess with him any more. isnt it great, you are required to have power coming to your house that is likely to set your house on fire.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
I've got a Sycamore in my back yard and it is the dirtiest high maintenance piece of carp.... I wish a bolt of lightning would blow that sucker right out to the curb.


Wouldn't that make it fall on your house? Be careful what you wish for!

 

[ERAC94]

We had a similar thing happen about 2 years ago where I live. My house sits in a pecan orchard and lightning hit one of our pecan trees in our front yard and literally split the tree in half (about a 80 foot tree) and we had to have the tree removed. BUT, like the movie/book "Where the red fern grows" there is a pecan sapling growing where the tree was. I guess it had very strong roots!

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: Kuato
I know someone who lost a sycamore tree several years ago to lightning.....they got paid.


I've got a Sycamore in my back yard and it is the dirtiest high maintenance piece of carp.... I wish a bolt of lightning would blow that sucker right out to the curb.




Ha, ha, ha!!! Put a lightning rod on it, that should help.

 

[Ausfahrt]

Update.

I can only give you guys a 5.3 on the replies. Insufficient sarcasm.

One of the trees had been hit before and I was hoping that it would come back. After the second strike they have both been reduced to telephone poles.....