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• Teach Posts: 18,428 Senior Member

  September 2017 #2

  Looks like lightning to me. Maybe the bolt just barely made it to the ground before running out of voltage. Most of the time it makes toothpicks out of a tree that small in diameter.
  Jerry

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• CaliFFL Posts: 5,486 Senior Member

  September 2017 #3

  I didn't give it any scale, but it's about 30" at the base.
  
  
  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  When our governing officials dismiss due process as mere semantics, when they exercise powers they don’t have and ignore duties they actually bear, and when we let them get away with it, we have ceased to be our own rulers.
  
  Adam J. McCleod
  
  

  
  

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• coolgunguy Posts: 6,637 Senior Member

  September 2017 #4

  Teach wrote: »

  Looks like lightning to me. Maybe the bolt just barely made it to the ground before running out of voltage. Most of the time it makes toothpicks out of a tree that small in diameter.
  Jerry

  
  
  I agree this is a lightning strike. Tree up the road looks just like that... I remember clearly the day it happened. The tree is still there, still doing tree stuff almost 20 years later.

  "Bipartisan" usually means that a bigger than normal deception is happening.
  George Carlin

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• Linefinder Posts: 7,856 Senior Member

  September 2017 #5

  Yep. Lighting strike.
  
  Lightening actually travels from the ground up, not from the sky down, even though it appears just the opposite.
  
  Colorado Springs is almost the lightning strike capital of the U.S. (hint....Tesla's lab was here).
  
  It's not unusual to see a tree here apparently dead from the ground up to some distance, while the top is still thriving. Cottonwoods, especially.
  
  Mike

  "Walking away seems to be a lost art form."
  N454casull
  

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• early Posts: 4,950 Senior Member

  September 2017 #6

  I've hidden in the timber during lightning storms.
  
  Guess my since of security was delusional at best.

  My thoughts are generally clear. My typing, not so much.

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• CaliFFL Posts: 5,486 Senior Member

  September 2017 #7

  Linefinder wrote: »

  Yep. Lighting strike.
  
  Lightening actually travels from the ground up, not from the sky down, even though it appears just the opposite.
  
  
  
  Mike

  
  The scar starts at the base of the trunk. It's strange there's no charring.

  When our governing officials dismiss due process as mere semantics, when they exercise powers they don’t have and ignore duties they actually bear, and when we let them get away with it, we have ceased to be our own rulers.
  
  Adam J. McCleod
  
  

  
  

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• Big Chief Posts: 32,995 Senior Member

  September 2017 #8

  Linefinder wrote: »

  Yep. Lighting strike.
  
  Lightening actually travels from the ground up, not from the sky down, even though it appears just the opposite.
  
  Colorado Springs is almost the lightning strike capital of the U.S. (hint....Tesla's lab was here).
  
  It's not unusual to see a tree here apparently dead from the ground up to some distance, while the top is still thriving. Cottonwoods, especially.
  
  Mike

  
  https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/580/why-does-lightning-strike-from-the-ground-up

  It's only true if it's on this forum where opinions are facts and facts are opinions
  Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
  I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!

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• wddodge Posts: 1,150 Senior Member

  September 2017 #9

  Yes, That's a lightning strike. I got a big oak tree by the barn that was struck about 20 years ago. About a 3" strip of bark missing from the base of the tree up thru the branches somewhere. The bark is just now growing back together.
  
  Denny

  Participating in a gun buy back program because you think that criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbors have too many kids.... Clint Eastwood

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• BigDanS Posts: 6,992 Senior Member

  September 2017 #10

  Charring is of course the result of burning, and many lightning strikes cause fires, but the energy superheats the water in the line of the strike causing it to "explode" into vapor and hence the crack.
  
  Yep, lightning.
  
  D

  "A patriot is mocked, scorned and hated; yet when his cause succeeds, all men will join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." Mark Twain
  Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:

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• CaliFFL Posts: 5,486 Senior Member

  September 2017 #11

  BigDanS wrote: »

  Charring is of course the result of burning, and many lightning strikes cause fires, but the energy superheats the water in the line of the strike causing it to "explode" into vapor and hence the crack.
  
  Yep, lightning.
  
  D

  
  Thanks.
  
  Every lightning-struck tree I've ever seen had char residue. After a quick google image search, the ripped bark effect is common with strikes.

  When our governing officials dismiss due process as mere semantics, when they exercise powers they don’t have and ignore duties they actually bear, and when we let them get away with it, we have ceased to be our own rulers.
  
  Adam J. McCleod
  
  

  
  

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• NN Posts: 25,235 Senior Member

  September 2017 #12

  Seen that lots on different types of tree.
  
  Fire will do that near the base of the tree; but, there will then be charred bark

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