Posted: 6/25/2008 6:15:34 AM EDT
This was at a neighbor's place across the way from me. Kinda hard to tell from the photos but there was wood all over the yard. Wild cherry tree fwiw. 
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My house got hit on the roof late last year. Took out a bunch of appliances and electronics, and my range caught fire. Luckily I was able to put the fire out, and the insurance pay for the damages except for my $2500 deductible. I never would have though that my house will get hit specially since I am surrounded by 2 story houses, some people have told me that palm trees attract lightning and I have 13 in my backyard. |
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Working in the cable field, i see alot of stuff like this. We had a bad lightning storm a while back and i went to a house that had gotten hit. Well, a tree in the neighbors yard got hit. The tree was about 100' from his garage door. When i got there i looked above the garage door and there were pieces of the tree stuck in the siding, through the wood into the attic of his house. Looked like tornado damage, but it wasn't. He opened his garage door and there sat a nice clean Corvette. He said he was glad it went into his attic and not the garage door. lol Lightning is some nasty stuff and does some weird and nasty damage. |
WOW, that's just nuts! Mike |
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I had lightning strike a small palm tree 20 feet away from the house last week. I was watching television with the wife and all of sudden "BOOM". It was way too loud to ignore. I went out to take a look, and sure as shit, a palm tree caught fire. I went back in to the house and grabbed my fire extinguisher, and while running back out I told the wife to call 911 and give them our address. As i'm running to put the fire out before further SHTF ensues. (P.s. we just about live in a tinder box, and my closest next door neighbors are about a block away from us.) As i'm reaching closer to the fire, I notice my neighbors pointing and staring at the fire. (WTF  )The tree now looks like a full size umbrella on fire. I finally put out the fire by running around the tree and hosing the target  Not a mere 20 seconds later, It starts to downpour.  Lessons learned: $55.00 fire extinguishers last about 20-25 seconds. Fire extinguisher chemical does not taste good after running in a circle with it.  Bag of popcorn and a tall drink when the neighbors house burns up. |
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Yep that's a Cherry tree alright... The sap inside the tree is very explosive when charged with a lightning bolt... I betcha that blast got your attention real quick... Happens alot with Pine Trees also... Classic internal explosion inside the tree where the sap was most concentrated... I see the wood fragments all over the yard from the blast... BIG BOMB... by mother nature Duck and cover... 
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I got hit with lightning while snorkeling in Ginnie Springs, 12 years ago It didnt kill me ...but it really fucking hurt!! I am a statistical annomoly, should be dead. I still havent won the lotto even though my chances are better for winning than getting hit by lightning. The only after effect is a small white patch of hair on my head, which grew there within a couple of weeks of the strike. Needless to say I get a little twitchy durring electrical storms and I cant stand too close to the microwave or I start drooling and I poop myself....I digress pete bogg |
92FS_26_M4 is my next door neighbor. My wife and I both saw the flash through our blackout shades and closed, sleeping eyelids! It happened at 3 or 4 am. Think of the loudest thunder you've ever heard, now bring that 20 feet from your head. Fortunately, the only damage to our house was that our alarm shorted out and started wailing. The only thing funny about this is that 92FS_26_M4 slept through the boom until his wife and wailing alarm woke him up!
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the reason the trees explode is it vaporizes the sap in an instant and the internal pressure casues the explosions. The doctor thinks becasue I was in water when I got struck that the water actually helped to difuse the lightning around me insted of it going through me glad no one was hurt |