Tree hit by lightning

[bctbct]

I had a 50ft maple tree that over hangs the house get struck by lightning today. I can't see any damage to the top but one side from mid point down the bark was blow/ exploded off.

I dont see any splits but there is an area 1ft X 4ft at the base where the bark is completely gone or loose down to the wood.

Will it die after being struck by lightning?

 

[JohnCU]

most of the trees i have seen hit by lightning die eventually

 

[Crusty]

Pics?

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Crusty
Pics?

yeah, pretty hard to tell w/o pics.

 

[DrawninwarD]

If it's just a layer of the bark that's been stripped, it can still survive. Trees don't have any vital organs or anything. As long as the xylem and phloem are largely undamaged and can still supply the tree with water and nutrients, it should be fine. Unless it gets some sort of fungus or bug infestation. But I'm just guessing here.

 

[bctbct]

I will try and do pics tomm., its dark now.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: bctbct
I will try and do pics tomm., its dark now.

excuses! stand out and snap one when more lightning strikes.

 

[bctbct]

We just discovered one of our tvs has a purple area in the top corner. Everything else seems normal and there is no damage to the house we can see so maybe its just a coincidence.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: bctbct
We just discovered one of our tvs has a purple area in the top corner. Everything else seems normal and there is no damage to the house we can see so maybe its just a coincidence.

I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

 

[JohnCU]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: bctbct
We just discovered one of our tvs has a purple area in the top corner. Everything else seems normal and there is no damage to the house we can see so maybe its just a coincidence.

I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

a lightning bolt is a hot ionized stream of air that is conducting electric charges between the cloud and ground.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

wtf? ... fail

 

[JohnCU]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

wtf? ... fail

hey be nice. no one truly understands lightning yet.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

wtf? ... fail

now, he isn't TOO far off. after all, a changing electric current will always have a magnetic field present and vica-versa. Though, IIRC lightning has a very low current flow (VERY low) with an extremely high voltage. so the resultant magnetic field wont be to strong. (Though it is strong enough to cause static on am and fm radios)

 

[JohnCU]

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

wtf? ... fail

now, he isn't TOO far off. after all, a changing electric current will always have a magnetic field present and vica-versa. Though, IIRC lightning has a very low current flow (VERY low) with an extremely high voltage. so the resultant magnetic field wont be to strong. (Though it is strong enough to cause static on am and fm radios)

well do tell me wtf a negatively charged magnetic is.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: JohnCU

Originally posted by: Cogman

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante
I wouldn't be surprised if your TV got a little messed up - a lightning bolt is basically a giant negatively charged magnet that only lasts for a split second, right?

wtf? ... fail

now, he isn't TOO far off. after all, a changing electric current will always have a magnetic field present and vica-versa. Though, IIRC lightning has a very low current flow (VERY low) with an extremely high voltage. so the resultant magnetic field wont be to strong. (Though it is strong enough to cause static on am and fm radios)

well do tell me wtf a negatively charged magnetic is.

that would be one of the parts that he was off on.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
well do tell me wtf a negatively charged magnetic is.

Get a conductive magnet.
Attach it to the negative contact of a 9V battery.
You now have a negatively charged magnet.
Or else stick the magnet on top of a Tesla Coil.


As I understand it, lightning results when air experiences dielectric breakdown, and becomes conductive.
Electricity passing through a conductor, such as a wire, generates a magnetic field.

Therefore, I'd expect lightning, which is electricity passing through a conductor, to produce a magnetic field. And if I had my Physics II notes handy, I could probably calculate the strength of that field, given some approximations of the energy present in a lightning bolt.


For that discolored TV, maybe see if you can get ahold of a degaussing coil somewhere. The TV probably has one built-in, which activates when the TV is turned on, but it's not likely to be very powerful.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: JohnCU
hey be nice. no one truly understands lightning yet.

Well, what are we waiting for? Send a probe out already.

 

[1prophet]

Text

Lightning Current
Williams says that a typical lightning bolt may transfer 10^20 electrons in a fraction of a second, developing a peak current of up to 10 kiloamperes.

According to Uman, the German scientist Pockels discovered that basalt rock in the vicinity of lightning strikes was magnetized and deduced currents on the order of 10,000 amps in 1897. Ampere's law allows you to deduce the current in a wire from the measurement of the magnetic field at some radius from the wire. Pockels presumably had measured the magnetizing effects of large currents on basalt and was able to scale those experiments to estimate the current associated with the lightning. Based on that principle, magnetic links are widely used for the measurement of the lightning currents. Most measurements have been in the range 5,000 to 20,000 amps but a famous strike just before the Apollo 15 launch in 1971 was measured at 100,000 amperes by magnetic links attached to the umbilical tower. Currents over 200,000 amps have been reported.

 

[Shawn]

Tracy: Doctor Spaceman, when they check my DNA, will they tell me what diseases I might get, or help me to remember my ATM pincode?
Dr. Spaceman: Absolutely. Science is whatever we want it to be.

 

[Cogman]

Originally posted by: 1prophet
Text

Lightning Current
Williams says that a typical lightning bolt may transfer 10^20 electrons in a fraction of a second, developing a peak current of up to 10 kiloamperes.

According to Uman, the German scientist Pockels discovered that basalt rock in the vicinity of lightning strikes was magnetized and deduced currents on the order of 10,000 amps in 1897. Ampere's law allows you to deduce the current in a wire from the measurement of the magnetic field at some radius from the wire. Pockels presumably had measured the magnetizing effects of large currents on basalt and was able to scale those experiments to estimate the current associated with the lightning. Based on that principle, magnetic links are widely used for the measurement of the lightning currents. Most measurements have been in the range 5,000 to 20,000 amps but a famous strike just before the Apollo 15 launch in 1971 was measured at 100,000 amperes by magnetic links attached to the umbilical tower. Currents over 200,000 amps have been reported.

Well, I was wrong. That would mean that lightning bolts give of a very powerful very fast magnetic pulse.

 

[Tobolo]

it will die

 

[SphinxnihpS]

This is covered by homeowner's insurance (usually to a limit with no deductible).

If you have been with your carrier for 10 years plus without a claim, I would check your policy and file if appropriate. Getting a large tree removed and replaced is expensive.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Also, since I now have read the rest of the thread, lightning strikes NEAR your house can cause a variety of strange failures in ALL of your electronic devices, some of which may not develop for days, and none of which are readily explicable.

 

[bctbct]

Well the tv returned to normal, I had to reset the garage door openers and my modem died today. Still lucky I guess.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've seen quite a few trees live after being struck....some caught fire and some died.

I'd say there's a good chance it will die, but you never know. The lightning may have travelled on the ouside of the trunk more than the inside.