Photo Heavy Lightning is no joke.

[Architex]

We had pretty bad storms move through yesterday. This is a tree on the course that got hit by lighting. There was bark everywhere. Pretty wild!

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[That post]

Wow. Thats wild. It scalped that tree.

 

[Triple Lindy]

Our house was hit a number of years ago. I had just landed at DFW airport and on my drive home, I was awestruck at how much cloud to ground lightning there was. I had been home about 30 minutes and was in the bedroom unpacking. Heard a huge boom and a pinging noise go through the ceiling over my head. Lightning struck the flashing where our chimney meets the roof - right between 2 large windows in our living room. My wife saw sparks fly through both windows. My neighbor saw the strike and said he saw electrical discharges run down our gutters - like something out of Ghostbusters. We had dime sized holes burned in our gutters every 10’ or so. The electricity discharged out of our gas meter on the other side of the house. That pinging I heard was the voltage traveling down the gas pipe. The flexible tubing on our hot water heaters was melted, so it traveled from the pipe, through the hot water heaters and finally out through the gas meter, which is on the other side of the garage wall where the heaters are. Fire department said we were lucky there wasn’t an explosion due to gas being ignited. All electronics were fried. I was still finding fried stuff years later.

That tree in your picture? It’s fried inside.

 

[Junkyard]

I'm surprised that the trunk isn't more shattered than just having lost the bark, I suspect that the inside damage will show up within a couple of days.

I was cleaning out some old emails earlier this morning and came across this photo that I had saved from IG showing the moment of impact

 

[DennisMiller]

Our house was hit a number of years ago. I had just landed at DFW airport and on my drive home, I was awestruck at how much cloud to ground lightning there was. I had been home about 30 minutes and was in the bedroom unpacking. Heard a huge boom and a pinging noise go through the ceiling over my head. Lightning struck the flashing where our chimney meets the roof - right between 2 large windows in our living room. My wife saw sparks fly through both windows. My neighbor saw the strike and said he saw electrical discharges run down our gutters - like something out of Ghostbusters. We had dime sized holes burned in our gutters every 10’ or so. The electricity discharged out of our gas meter on the other side of the house. That pinging I heard was the voltage traveling down the gas pipe. The flexible tubing on our hot water heaters was melted, so it traveled from the pipe, through the hot water heaters and finally out through the gas meter, which is on the other side of the garage wall where the heaters are. Fire department said we were lucky there wasn’t an explosion due to gas being ignited. All electronics were fried. I was still finding fried stuff years later.

That tree in your picture? It’s fried inside.

While it's not exactly true, Miami, Florida likes to call itself the lightning capital of the world. We do get a lot, specially during summer rainy season. Every home in my neighborhood has lightning avoidance features built in, including a grounding rod coming off the house into the ground.

We also pay monthly for what amounts to a surge suppressor on our electric meter. Replacement appliances, computers and repairs are on Florida Power & Light's account if we get a strike that destroys anything.

A number of years ago, lighting struck a manhole cover down the street. It warped it about 30 degrees, melted the bars between a couple open grate holes together and threw it about 10 feet from the hole it covered.

If I'm on the course and there's lightning, you better get in the cart fast or I'll drive off and leave your slow butt. ;-) Fortunately, I used to work at the course where I play 99% of the time, so I know all the shortcuts to get back to the clubhouse through neighborhood streets. I definitely take it seriously.

Oh, and I'm 6'7", so i get teased about being struck before shorter people.

 

[WSox fan]

Several years ago at a local 9 hole muni by me 2 guys were killed that rook shelter under a big old oak tree. They put in lightning detectors that had already been budgeted for. It was supposed to be several months in the future but all the city parks and golf courses had them pretty quickly after that.