When lightning and trees meet

[Caleb Larru]

This oak was hit by lightning the night before last. We had a pretty big thunderstorm come through with lots of ground strikes. We found pieces of bark 40 feet away from the tree.

The tree has been shattered and is split going the length of the tree top to bottom in 3 places. I don't know how it is still standing. When the wind blows it causes the branches to swing and rotate like a top. I am betting it will split completely apart and fall by tomorrow.

Sorry the pictures aren't so great, I only had my phone on me at the time.

I am curious to see what the center of the tree looks like. I will get better pictures when it falls. I didn't want to get too close to it today because when the wind blows it looks and SOUNDS like it could fall at any time.

[Chris Padilla]

Powerful stuff that lightning....

[Cody Colston]

Man, the lightning must have really heated up the sap to blow the bark off like that. Awesome!

Where are you located? That Oak with a Cedar in the background, a small Dogwood in the foreground and the creek, etc. looks like it could be in East Texas. Pretty woods.

[Caleb Larru]

Man, the lightning must have really heated up the sap to blow the bark off like that. Awesome!

Where are you located? That Oak with a Cedar in the background, a small Dogwood in the foreground and the creek, etc. looks like it could be in East Texas. Pretty woods.


I am in Alma, Arkansas. It's just south of Fayetteville and East of Fort Smith.

There are pieces of bark about 3 foot long that were blown 30 foot away. Some of the smaller pieces are 40 plus. You are correct though, it is a very beautiful place to live.

[Paul Steiner]

BASEBALL BATS! I would make bats outta that, it seems like the natural thing to do.

[Neal Clayton]

i used to live over in fort smith myself.

i lost an oak tree this year too. the lightning didn't shatter it like the one above, just kinda grazed it. the culprit, to be honest, was the morons who lived here before, they drove a brass flag pole into the tree itself. nothing says patriotism like driving your 10 dollar chinese made flag pole/lightning rod into an irreplaceable old tree :rolleyes:. when they realized their idiotic flag pole placement had caused the lightning strike they just hacked off the flag pole and left the base of it grown into the tree, as a convenient access hole for any wood chewing bug that wanted to get in. can't get over how stupid those people were. anyways, i actually have an original picture of my two (well, now one) front yard trees when they were planted 101 years ago, right after the original owners moved into the house. tried to keep it tarred up and keep the bugs out, but the winter was just too dry, it didn't make it. had to cut it about a month ago :(.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Would have really been something to see.

Several years ago I had a pecan sawn that was given to me after having been killed by lightning. The trunk was 22 feet long and about 3 1/2' across the butt. I didn't see the tree before all the limbs were chainsawed but all the wood was sound and the bark tight - I'd like to know what it was about the strike that killed it.

[Dick Strauss]

Richard,
The lightning uses the moisture and mineral laden sap of the tree to conduct the electricity. However, this sap (mostly in the outer layer of the tree) can't carry the amount of current required to complete the lightning to ground circuit. So, the sap gets superheated generating steam (water converts to steam by expanding to 1600 times its original volume or a corresponding increase in pressure). This steam has to escape because of the great increase in pressure and blows the bark off the tree. The residual lightning damage stops the ability of the tree to transfer moisture to the upper parts of the tree. The strike can also open the tree up for infections/infestations. If the tree has bark blown off more than one side, the odds are its done. If it has a stripe down the side, there is a chance the tree will recover depending on the species.

I've seen bark blown hundreds of feet away on ash trees that were struck by lightning.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Dick, I understand about lightning boiling the sap and blowing the tree apart. There is one a few miles from me that has survived several years with at least a good third of the bark missing. It's in none too good shape but still alive. I'd guess that something about the strike that killed the tree (at least I was told a strike killed it) toasted the insides enough without blowing it apart. Like I said, I didn't see the whole tree; it had been taken down about two months prior and the limbs removed. The trunk was all I saw and got but the bark was tight on it all around.

[Caleb Larru]

The tree is barely hanging on today. I will post pics as soon as I can.

[Chris Padilla]

Many of the giant sequoias in the Sierras have had their tops knocked off due to lighting but the trees keep on going and growing...just no upper level growth. :)

The coastal redwood, which are taller than the sequoia, usually don't have lighting strikes since they are rare along the coast....