The lightning strike pictured hit a tree in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. In fact, the effects can vary enormously. You’d think a lightning strike would be game over for most trees.
When lightning strikes, they are more likely to be struck.
How do these rules apply from the perspective of a tree? Old trees are often the tallest thing around. Lightning never strikes in the same place twice. Don’t shelter under a tree during a thunder storm. Most of us are used to the rules we were told about lightning and trees from childhood. And that means our tallest trees will be hit more often. As storms intensify in our new climate, we’re likely to see more lightning strikes. These all contribute to trees falling or dropping large branches.īut there’s something you might not think of as linked to climate change.
This is what we can expect as our climate changes, with storm events more frequent, wind speeds stronger and rainfall heavier. See if you can find a tree with lightning damage.The huge storms many Australians have experienced recently have damaged or toppled old trees which had withstood the vagaries of our weather for the past century or more. Take a walk around your neighborhood or a local park or cemetery and If heavy rain has soaked the outside of the tree, a lightning strike mayįlash over the outside of the bark, leaving little or no damage. Trunk apart like a stick of dynamite- sending large branches flying, splitting the trunk in two, and/or reducing large parts of the tree to splinters. The powerful, explosive return stroke(s) will blow the In this case the lightning, seeking the well-conductive moisture path, will travel through the center of the tree with devastating results. In some trees, especially those with dying or rotting areas in the trunk, the predominant moisture may be concentrated deep in the core of the tree. View trees with lightning scars in the Tree Damage Gallery. There is, however, a way to protect your trees before the lightning strikes. "The injury also leaves the tree exposed and defenseless against disease and parasite infestation." "With a gash of removed bark, a tree won't be able to withstand dry spells or freezing winters," says Southall.
LIGHTNING STRIKE SCARS SKIN
Unlike skin on humans, bark can't be grafted or transplanted to repair the injury. "But eventually nature will take its toll on the tree." "Your tree may survive for a while," says Helen Southall of West Virginia Tree Expert and Nursery Co. Unfortunately, tree specialists say that there's not much that can be done for a tree that has lost a significant amount of bark. The image shown under the menu bar on the top-left side of this page shows a scar with two grooves. If the lightning flash consisted of more than one return stroke, there may be two or more of these grooves in the scar. Often, the core of the lightning channel will carve a half-inch wide groove in the wood in the middle of the scar. The image at right shows two strips (front and back views) of bark blown off of a tree by lightning. The result is a visible scar along the trunk Of the wood, along the length of the lightning channel. The explosive expansion of the lightning's return stroke will literally blast off the bark, and sometimes some And since water is a better electrical conductor than wood, lightning striking a tree tends to travel just underneath the bark. In most trees, the area just under the bark layer contains moisture in the form of sap and water. How can you prevent lightning from damaging your favorite tree? Read about lightning Protection & Prevention for trees. Scarring, No Damage, and/or Complete Destruction. Generally, lightning will do at least one of the following three things when it decides to victimize a tree: Death of the tree is common in the latter instance. Some trees escape completely unharmed by a direct hit, while others sustain moderate to heavy damage. Interesting things happen when lightning strikes a tree. This web site is made possible by support from CIS Internet. The result: a tree provides a preferred path for lightning to reach ground.
And for a good reason - trees protrude from the earth's surface, making them frequent victims of direct lightning strikes.Įlectricity seeks the path of least resistance, and the moisture (sap and water) inside a tree is a much better conductor than air. It's a proven fact - standing under a tree is one of the most dangerous places to be in a storm.
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