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Lightening strike?

Started by mrcaptainbob, May 21, 2013, 11:02:33 PM

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mrcaptainbob

There's a fair number of honey locusts in the woods just north of the barn. One of them has a branch off to the side, nearly vertical, that has the bark stripped along it's east side for what looks like at least ten feet. Tip to trunk. The tree has a sort of hip about midpoint, maybe twenty feet up, that has the bark peeled from it. That's directly beneath that stripped branch. At ground level the bark is ripped maybe ten or so inches from the ground. Nothing else on the tree is damaged. The bark stripping looks like it's shredded. Could that be from a lightening strike?

JohnW


mesquite buckeye

Good call. The damage can vary from next to nothing or a branch burned, strip barked to completely exploded. I saw this happen to a ponderosa pine while driving in the mountains during a summer thunderstorm. Had to dodge the chunks landing all over the road. :o

Lightning strikes often mean it is time to harvest, as the wood under the strip usually degrades. If the grain is spiraled, you can end up losing a lot of wood if you wait 10 or 20 years. Often the tree never closes the wound if it is a big one. :o ;D 8) 8) 8)
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

Ed

Lightning for sure.

Had a very nice Cherry on the edge of my woods, 18" dbh, 20' of clean trunk to the first crotch. A storm broke off one of the branches, like an idiot I didn't cut it for sawlogs. Several years later lightning hit it, entered at the wound from the branch, split the trunk all the way to the ground, blew bark 50' out into the field.....nothing but pre-split firewood then.

Ed

Ron Scott

~Ron

ancjr

When I was a kid, we had lightning strike a ~10 DBH, 20ft tree which exploded and left a 50ft debris field.  It even unearthed the rootball.  My brother and I had fun finding all the crinoid fragments in the debris.   :)

mrcaptainbob

Mother Nature is amazing in her selections. There are many, many trees surround the one that was hit. Taller and larger around. But this one got smacked. There are quite a few sapling honey's further up the hill. A heavy wind storm came by last year and rocked one of them over. The wind came from the southwest, the knocked down tree was almost on the northeast side. Not the largest, not the smallest, no obvious signs of weakness, but it's the one that got rocked over with it's roots exposed. I couldn't pull that thing over with my truck, but that wind did! No other trees in the area were damaged. Mother Nature is sure accurate.

mesquite buckeye

I milled a black walnut in 2011 hit by lightning in 1997. Pretty neat, because only about 1/4 of the tree was actually killed. The adjacent area had a burn layer that ran down between the bark and the wood at the time, but didn't kill the cambium, which continued to grow for another 15 summers. The wood smelled burned. I'm going to try to make something out of it, just haven't figured out what yet. Just breaking down the air dry stack today. Noticed some of the crotch/big knot areas are internally exploded. Seems like this tree was close to blowing completely apart. It's going to be special when it is done, I'll post photos. ;D
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

Phorester


Several years ago I was traveling down a road one morning and suddenly noticed there were wood chunks all over it.  I looked over in a field next to the road, and about 50 feet in the field was a big yellow poplar that had been completely shattered by lightning the night before.  Looked like somebody had exploded a stick of dynamite in it.

SPIKER

Saw 12" Elm hit back in the 80's when I was young.   it had 5 or 6 spiraled sections of bark peeled out about 1" square that laid out from the tree like banana peels.  Well I was watching outside when it hit needless to say it pretty much startled the bageisus out of me! electricuted-smiley

Mark
I'm looking for help all the shrinks have given up on me :o

WildDog

We get a lot of strikes on our farm, usually its the best trees. :( This pic shows 2 White Box Eucalypts struck at different times, I can't recall but probably a year or 2 apart. I should go up and cut the 1st for firewood.



 
If you start feeling "Blue" ...breath    JD 5510 86hp 4WD loader Lucas 827, Pair of Husky's 372xp, 261 & Stihl 029

thecfarm

I've lost at least 3 big white pine due to lighting. I had lighting hit a maple. That started a fire at the base of the tree with some dry pine needles on a limb that my Father and me had cut. Than the shower came and put the fire out. Might of burned a place about 3-5 feet at the base of the tree. Some lucky the rain came.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

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