Lighting does strange things.

[Michael Weber]

Had a lighting strike day before yesterday. Blew bark off a 100+ year old oak street tree. :mad: But what was strange was it blow out the neighborhood water mains in 4 different locations around my house. The pipe was PVC. Had city trucks and backhoes all over the place, Some of the blown off bark hit my house about 50 feet away and broke a couple of windows. I guess we were lucky. I hope the tree lives. I understand it's one of those wait and see situations.

[Jim Matthews]

Remember when you cut it down to keep the magic bat in the middle of the trunk.

[Myk Rian]

I was wondering what strange things lighting did. Aha. lightning.

I'll say the tree is gone. Lightning turns moisture in the tree to steam, that expands, and tears the fibers apart.

[John Coloccia]

It depends. I have a tree out front that was hit by lightning and it's doing fine. Heck, people get hit by lightning and live. You may want to have an arborist patch it up a bit, though....get some of that black goop on there to seal it up.