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Lightning Struck Trees !!

Wood Doctor

Edwin
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Indirect lightning took my pin oak out in early March, 2018. I planted it myself 32 years ago. It was the tallest tree in the neighborhood.
Pin Oak Tree1.JPG
No obvious damage, but indirect lightning can hit a tree a hundred or more times as it electrocutes it. This tree's roots were also burned to a crisp. Take a look at the trunk after it was cut down:
Pin Oak Tree5.JPG
The same outside burn ring was black all around the branches as well. Not a single leaf appeared in all of 2018. A freak of nature, but it happened. Climbers worked from the top down. As the branches hit the turf, they actually shattered they were so dead dry. This tree had a full crown of leaves in December 2017.
 
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Wood Doctor

Edwin
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That's a shame that looked like a beautiful pin oak too!
It was. I planted it in 1988 when it was about age 5. Seldom did I ever cut off a dead branch. Acorns fell every year after 199o. Squirrels devoured most of them. It established a leader branch at the center of the top every year. Had it lived, it could have easily reached close to 100 feet tall.

Even the company that cut it down said that it was hard to believe that indirect lightning could have destroyed it, but that is exactly what happened. Late February and early March is when thunder snow hits hard around here. The tallest trees in a neighborhood are the most susceptible to the attack. Mine was the tallest.
 
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