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Thread: Lightening strike

  1. #1
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Default Lightening strike

    We had a little storm run through ahead of a frontal system Friday evening. Nothing big on the radar map so I did not button down the place just let it rain. Storm came through and I am watching out the back window.

    BAMMM! and the whole world lit up like an A-bomb had been dropped!

    Lightening struck the big ash tree on the corner of the lot. Blew bark and limbs all over the lawn.

    Left a white streak of exposed wood from the top branch to the ground and blew half the bark off the tree.

    This is a big Ash tree about 3' diameter and 50' tall. I figure it is now dead.

    I did have one strange thought. That tree was infested with Emerald Ash Boers. I wonder if the strike killed them or just gave them a good buzz.

    I can see the little teenage Ash Boers now one sitting on the limb and the other saying

    "What you doing Bevis?"

    "Waiting for another storm that was COOOOL!"
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?


  2. #2
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I'll go out on a limb and ask if you reckon it fried their ash?

    Glad it didn't hit your house. The tree is bad enough. When you hear that sizzle and the immediate boom you know it was a warning shot. Time to straighten up and fly right. I'll bet that exploding tree was a sight.

    The church got hit about a month ago. We think it came in on commercial power but it sure messed things up.

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    I've had that sizzle BOOM twice in my life. I come inside if there are clouds in the sky. In another life I sold Chevrolets. My office was on a corner right next to a flag pole with one of those giant flags on it. I was standing by the window two feet from the flagpole watching it rain and this crackling sound started. It lasted about long enough for me to hear it and WHABOOOOOM!!! No time to eve say "OhSh....". My phone rang almost immediately. The guys across the lot had seen the strike. They said it hit the pole and they were wondering if I was alive. They didn't care if I was alive, they were just wondering.

    Another life, doing ranch work, we stopped for lunch and were sitting under a big mesquite tree. Same thing Sizzllleeeeeel Boom! This time there was not a cloud in the sky. The strike hit another mesquite tree about 30 feet away and split it in half. Well, there were plenty of places to sit under trees right after that. Nobody would go near a tree fro the rest of the day.

    Last close strike was about four years ago. I was sitting in the garage watching it rain and BOOOOM!! lightening hit the across the street neighbor's pine tree. Went down the tree, jumped to the basketball goal, traveled through the rebar/remesh in his driveway up to his front door, blew concrete out next to the house fast enough to go through the soffit and into the attic, then found his electrical system and fried everything in his house that was plugged in. We knew where the strike had gone because it was all burned.

    So, Kyrat, I'm glad you weren't any closer to that ash tree and if there are any Ash Boers left, they probably ain't happy.

    Alan

  4. #4
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    I was lucky on the electronics area. This was not a bad storm, just gentle rain and I was running music through the computer when the strike occurred.

    No damage to any electronics so far.

    The way that strike went down the tree into the ground I was shocked that there was not a jump to some other point like Alan was describing. The ground was good and damp and it could have carried a long way.

    All I have noticed was that my mail box is planted about a foot away from the side where the strike raced down the tree. The post is still solid in the ground but tilted about 5% away from the tree and the door will no longer lineup to close!
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  5. #5
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    That mailbox was just trying to save itself. Just trying to get away. I saw some crazy stuff when I worked outside. An old man lived in the country. He had a 60 amp service in his house. He had gotten up from his easy chair to look out the door at the storm when lightening hit and blew the fuses out of that box. The top of all four fuses blew out of that box and embedded in the back of the chair he had just been sitting in. Looked like someone had shot that chair. Just not his day.

  6. #6
    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    So, you now have a half ash....

    Alabama gets a lot of thunderstorms so I've seen this one a bunch of times. What amazes me is how random lightning is. It's like tornadoes - surgical.

    Some parts have it particularly bad. People who live on Pine Mountain's eastern end, where all the high towers are, have problems with their plumbing being blasted. The towers draw lightning down to the ground where it goes straight for the pipes.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

  7. #7

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    Florida has the most lightning strikes and deaths by lightning in the nation. To say that it's a subject on my mind a lot is an understatement. That said, if we ran inside every time lightning might strike we would be indoors most of our lives. When it hits close and that awful CRACK/BANG!!! goes off I always do a quick self check ... shoes still on … hair not on fire … muscles not seizing... whew, say a little prayer of thanks and long slow breaths. I guess He has some work still here on earth for me.


    But doncha love the smell of ozone in the air.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    On the list!

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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
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    Senior Member WolfVanZandt's Avatar
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    I've been chased by thunderstorms several times here in the Denver area. It's not the lightening that scares me, though. You heaar one big boom and it's usually over. It's the hail and the wind. I've almost gotten use to it.

    The last time I heard thunder and looked behind me to see big black clouds boiling over the Front Range, I was in the middle of Bear Creek Lakes Park. The place looks like a lunarscape. And the nearest shelter was on top of Mount Carbon. Okay - it's only a couple hundred foot rise, but jogging up those switchbacks were murder.
    True enough, my final home is still out there, but this is most certainly my home range and I love it. I love every rock I fall off and tree I trip over. Even when I am close to dying from exhaustion, a beautiful sunset doesn't lose it's power to refresh and inspire me and that, in itself, is enough to save me sometimes.

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