Great info as always Matt
I got to witness the frightening power of lightning a few nights ago..almost too close.. We had a storm pass, and thinking we where done, I pulled the truck out of the garage to head out for some walleye fishing... well i did'nt get 2 miles before another storm swept in, so I scrubbed fishing and turned back for home.. on the way back, lightning was cracking all around.. when I got home, it was dumping and storming bad, so I hit the remote to open the garage door.. nadda.. then I glanced to my left and saw one of the big oaks next to the garage was nearly torn in half
In the few minutes since I had pulled out, lightning had struck the tree.. it blew out the windows in the garage, blew the fuse panel door open and one fuse clean out! fried the door opener of course.. looking around the yard, it looked like a bomb had gone off.. Huge splinters of wood from the tree, plus some lumber pop had stacked next to garage had been thrown around like jackstraws.. gutters hanging, siding on the house ( on the other side of the detached garage) all dented from wood shrapnel.. we found a piece about 5' long 30 feet up another oak on the other side of the driveway! I consider we where very lucky.. no one was hurt.. there was no fire.. (despite a 1/2 can of gas sitting out next to the woodpile at the base of the tree being blown 10 feet away
) We lost phone and cable for a few days.. and my favorite deer hanging tree
but it coulda been a lot worse..Interestingly, there was an old basketball hoop that had grown into the tree that apparently diverted the bolt, and kept it from splitting the tree to the roots... But it really makes you respect the awesome power of a strike..
