Lightning strike

[onetrack]

I guess we all well know the power in a bolt of lightning, but a recent lightning strike on a Marri tree at my stepdaughters place in the hills of the Darling Range above Perth, has just reminded me about the power of lightning strikes.

 

The lightning bolt hit this Marri tree that is about 20M high, and it struck an upper branch about 15M off the ground. It hit while she and her partner were at home in their house about 100M away, and the explosion made them both duck for cover.

 

The lightning hit a big branch in the upper portion of this forked tree, and the strike force went down the inner side of one fork, then punched through the fork to come out the other side of the trunk, blowing huge shards of Marri timber up to 50M away!

 

After the bolt hit the ground, it made its way to a nearby bore they have (also about 50M away), that supplies water to the house, and it completely fried their single-phase submersible pump. Luckily, their home insurance covers the repair cost.

 

The lightning strike appears to have killed the tree, all the leaves have died off and are getting ready to drop. The lightning strike happened about a fortnight ago.

 

The two photos below show the strike point in the upper branches (slightly left of centre, at the top of the first photo), and the second photo shows the damage to the lower trunk section that blew outwards.

 

You can enlarge the photos by placing your mouse cursor on the photos, and left clicking on them twice.

 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by onetrack