Lightning strike

North Vale - PA · Jul 7, 2015

had a nasty thunderstorm roll in here about 3am last night, started as a slow drizzle, then BOOM, lightning strike hit us somewhere. I looked out the window to make sure
nothing was on fire, like the barn. This morning, I found one of our trees, about 75' from the house and 25' from the barn, got hammered. It is a 50' tall locust tree and
at least half the bark is gone, scattered all over the yard. Our house has lightning rods, the barn does not. Maybe time to put them up there. That makes about 5 strikes
on us in about 20 years. The tree has been the worst damage. Lost our fence charger once and part of the fence. Literally melted.

gab · Jul 7, 2015

About 15 years ago I was driving over a hill on the way home from work in pouring rain when there was a big lightning strike a couple miles away around in the vicinity of home. When I pulled in the driveway there was bark and splinters everywhere, hit a big walnut tree.

TimnSEVA · Jul 7, 2015

Lightning strike last week at the park I work at in SE VA. 40+ inch diameter oak split to the ground.Thats the first time I have seen one split from top to bottom.

North Vale - PA · Jul 8, 2015

that counts as a 'wow'.

JMOR · Jul 8, 2015

Kind of makes one doubt those people who claim to have taken a direct lightening strike & lived to tell about it , doesn't it? Suspect they were just "close" , otherwise they would have experienced a steam explosion as did that tree.

JRSutton · Jul 8, 2015

When I was a kid, I was sitting at an open window watching a real good storm come through. Same thing, suddenly out of nowhere BAMMM - a tall tree just 50 feet in front of me got hit.

I don't know if it was from the blast itself, my nerves, or both, but I must have jumped three feet in the air.

Odd thing was - in the bright flash, I swear I saw the reflection of our house somehow. I could never explain that, and it was probably just a coincidental shape that looked like our house - but if so it that was very coincidental given the odd, complicated shape of the house. Not just a square.

Either way - result was the same, the tree split in half, one half came crashing down.

Lightning is impressive.

Richard G. · Jul 8, 2015

Had 2 huge poplars about 60 feet from the house. Been struck many times in the 37 years we have been here. 2 years ago they got fried and died by a strike.
Richard in NW SC

Stephen Newell · Jul 8, 2015

I saw a lightning strike about 100' from me one time and hope I never see one again. It looked like a Star Trek phaser blast from a star ship. It took me hours to calm my nerves down. Even years later now I still go inside during lightning storms. Funny even though it was a heavily wooded area the lightning struck the ground.

ohiojim · Jul 8, 2015

i've had 9 strikes within 200 ft. of my house in 20 yrs...some were pretty impressive, lost my barn in 2003 from a strike

fixerupper · Jul 8, 2015

A tree is well grounded by its roots. I saw a smaller tree with a 10" trunk lose every square inch of bark off it's trunk from lightning. The trunk was bare yellow slimy wood. Humans wearing shoes aren't grounded as well as a tree. A neighbor lady was struck while she was taken clothes off the line. She was wearing sandals and she saw an arc come out of her big toe and go to the ground. It happened ten years ago and she still has some occasional nerve pain. The arc came out the foot that was on the same side of her body as the hand that was on the clothes line.

jeffcat · Jul 8, 2015

Electric firewood? or Sparky wood. Been close to a couple myself. My dad got zapped by a "feeler". Threw him a good few feet. like the snake fence. Horse and rider. One or the other.

MARK ROBKE · Jul 8, 2015

I have heard that poplar trees were more prone to getting hit by lightning than other trees;your post seems to help confirm that.Has anyone else heard or seen this to be true?One time someone offered me poplar seedlings to plant in my yard,but I declined because of that.We live on top of a ridge and have had several lightning hits-just outside our bedroom our phone wire was hit,melted in 2,connector box blown off the side of the house,and made an open in the harness under the house to the phone.Another time lightning hit a tree near my garage and blew the door opener circuit board.Also I have lost at least one fence charger and had several fuses blown in it.My bil just had a cow lost to lightning last week.He found her right away and said she was very swollen-I guess her insides were boiled.Powerful stuff.Mark

Brian G. NY · Jul 8, 2015

I worked at the Wallkill Prison years ago when they still had the farm.
At four o'clock one afternoon, lightning struck a very large maple in a small yard where we had placed 3 holsteins who were about to freshen.

Killed all three instantaneously and curled the ends of some of roots up out of the ground. The cows naturally had congregated under the tree when it began to rain.

We had a USDA certified slaughterhouse on the premises and we called out the inmate crew and slaughtered them immediately so it was not a total loss.

That tree was scarred but survived for years....may even be alive yet today.

Billy NY · Jul 8, 2015

Had a good one here in '11, old poplar tree, 130am wed April 27th. It blew pieces 100'+ away, some large ones too, I'd not have wanted to be near it. Some weather system came through and it was an isolated strike, not widespread like heavy thunderstorms, totally unexpected as it seemed to be the only strike.

504 · Jul 8, 2015

We have an oak that burned for a week from a strike.
It lived two years after that till it died.

buickanddeere · Jul 8, 2015

She was not zapped by the main lighting bolt but by induced voltage. The clothes line acted like the secondary of an air gap transformer.

Lightning strike

North Vale - PA

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gab

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TimnSEVA

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North Vale - PA

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JMOR

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JRSutton

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Richard G.

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Stephen Newell

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ohiojim

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fixerupper

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jeffcat

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MARK ROBKE

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Brian G. NY

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Billy NY

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504

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buickanddeere

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