Lightning Strike: Dead Tree and intriguing effects.

in photography •  8 years ago  (edited)

A while back I took these photos to document some interesting effects caused by lightning.

A co-worker was quite near the tree when the strike occurred. The fence was glowing with blue sparks

The tree was dead but must have had some moisture running down one of the spiral cracks in its trunk.

This moisture provided the necessary conductivity but boiled explosively in the process splitting away the dry wood.

The electric charged passed between the wire fence and the trunk where the fence made contact with the trunk

The spiral crack went all the way up the the trunk and the charge followed it without deviation.

This even extend to the top branches

We get a lot of lightening in the area and this is not the only tree I have seen damaged in this way.

We have also had very many cows killed by lightening during electrical storms from standing next to a wire fence or beneath powerlines

Moral of the story: Stay away from fences, trees, power-lines etc. during electrical storms

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Lightning to me, is the most powerful force in nature. I think that's why it was pegged with Zeus.

Its absolutely awesome in its power

this is one of my favorite shots of lightning... I love the tendrils

like a sculptured of a person, but it's pretty cool :)

It would have been better if you had given the city this has happen

Magaliesburg... really small town in South Africa

Hmm.... I always thought lightning struck tree will have something like burnt marks.

Yea, go figure. I've seen strikes in dry grass that set it on fire and strikes in green grass that leave a small burnt patch, but this one no burn marks.

More recently, lightning killed a man on techno music festival . He was talking on a cell phone during a thunderstorm.

Nice , Thanks for share

Nice pictures.

Most beautiful thing to watch is lighting , just awesome.
I feel sorry for that tree though :(

The tree was already dead... so no hard feelings... it protected the people standing nearby

Thx!

Such lightening, much power. So Zeus .. wow