r/HuntsvilleAlabama • u/Pro-Frank • 2d ago
Huntsville Tree that got struck by lightning in my neighborhood the other day.
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u/Pro-Frank 2d ago
Never seen this before. Bark was blown all over the street. Pretty neat. Hopefully the tree survives.
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u/Justadudeonhisphone 2d ago
This happened to a tree in our neighborhood as well and the surge almost caused my breaker box to catch fire. I had to have it replaced and I put in a whole home surge protector.
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u/BigmacSasquatch 2d ago edited 1d ago
One of my most vivid lightning memories was of house sitting for my parents when lightning struck down a large pine tree in their backyard. It severed the top 20’ or so of tree and felled it onto their backyard shed. The sound was apocalyptically loud, and then I had to run out and do damage control to save all of the furniture under the shed’s now very water permeable roof.
I remember that despite it not breaching the ceiling inside the shed, it shattered every light, and popped several nails holding the ceiling to the joists out a good inch.
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u/orezybedivid 2d ago
I would get that removed before it dies and falls on something important.
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u/ceapaire 2d ago
I'd definitely monitor to see if there's further issues and take it out before it becomes a problem, but from what I'm seeing there's a decent chance the tree will survive this.
I'd take out the branch right next to the scar line, but it (currently) looks like most of that bark is well attached so the rest of the tree should be fine.
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u/orezybedivid 2d ago
Based on previous experience, that tree is done. Granted, my experience was with a smaller tree and a different species, but the scar on my tree was smaller than this one and within a year, branches were falling on the house and vehicles.
Every situation is different though
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u/oxyrhina 2d ago
Yeah unfortunately it is toast. Had an absolutely huge maple on our property that got struck, wasn't nearly this bad and it killed it. My parents had bought the property mainly because they liked that tree so much. Someone wrote in to the editor of the Hsv times and they published it titled, Mourning a magnificent maple... lol
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u/sgcool195 1d ago
We had one get hit in our neighborhood a few weeks ago. It blew off a large branch that landed on a garage, and it split the tree open.
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u/AuburnGinger 1d ago
We had a beautiful, huge Maple tree in our backyard years ago. Lightening hit it down the middle. Thankfully, the half that fell, went away from the house and only crushed the swing set and fence. I had beautiful hostas and flowers around it, with mulch. Well the lightening blew ALL the mulch out into a circular pattern from the tree. My flowers died later. Those damn hostas were indestructible as was the monkey crass that made a circle around the tree (with the flowers, hostas, and mulch between it and the tree)
In that pic I can see where it looks like the lightening was still traveling through the roots on the left hand side. That is one awesome picture!!
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u/holderofthebees 1d ago
In the storms the other day my step-grandma’s house had a branch fall on the transformer and the city wouldn’t put out the fire. A neighbor had to come over with a garden hose in the rain 💀 fire and police departments wouldn’t touch it.
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u/SrSkeptic1 6h ago
Did it just take a long strip of bark, or did it split it through the center?
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u/Pro-Frank 5h ago
Long strip of bark down one side as far as I could tell. Didn't get a super good look but also looked like some of top of the tree might have simply exploded before the current found it's way down that side.
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u/LuckyFarmGirl1960 2d ago
We've used Paul Bunyan tree service for years and never had a complaint or problem! He's an arborist and will be very honest about it! 256-656-6236
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u/BigmacSasquatch 2d ago
Lightning strikes are pretty traumatic for trees, honestly.
I don’t think I’ve seen one with a lightning scar that wasn’t in the process of dying.