which tree is hit by lightning more than any other tree and why?
lightning
This is from an article published by the University of Missouri Extension:
Quoting:
It is difficult to predict which trees will be struck by lightning and which are most likely to be seriously injured. In general, lone trees, those tallest in a group or those growing in moist soil have the highest probability of being struck. In the considerable body of lightning lore, certain tree species are commonly listed as more lightning-attractive than others. These include maple, ash, tulip tree, sycamore, poplar, oak, elm, pine, spruce and hemlock. Some of these species, like sycamore and tulip tree are likely targets because they tend to tower over other species. Pines and hemlocks may be lightning-prone because of the water that collects on their needles during thunderstorms. One theory explaining why oaks are commonly damaged during electrical storms is that the roughness of the bark prevents uniform trunk wetting, causing the current to jump from surface water to the water inside the trunk.
From West Chester University:
Quoting:
Lone trees are more susceptible to lightning strikes. Certain species, most notably tulip poplars, are more prone to be hit by lightning. Tall lone trees with a high water content are more probable targets for lightning. Lightning arresting systems do work, but they are expensive to install and require annual maintenance. On a valuable specimen tree, they can be justified.
Oh my. The tall tree in this picture is a Tulip Poplar in my backyard. Now it looks like a lightning rod to me!
I have read that it is the oak...
Quoting:
. So tree lovers should run out before the storm and hose down their oaks
Lighting zining out of the air at over sixty miles per second, will strike the uppermost branches of the tree and, if the tree is uniformly wet, will follow the surface aater film down the outside of the trunk to the ground. Real trouble occurs, however when the tree is partially dry. Such is usually the case of the unfortunate oak, whose rough and ridged bark plates prevent water from running smoothly and evenly down the tree. Here the lightening bolt whips along the rain-soaked branches until it hits the end of the water slick ...then seeking the next best downward path;, it enters the liquid sap channels inside the tree trunk. These channels are very narrow...anywhere from forty to three hundred microns in diameter, the largest barely visible to the naked eye. The heat of the travelling lightening 50,000 degrees fahrenheit, five times hotter than the surface of the sun..promptly vaporizes the sap, which trapped in its tiny tubes, expands violently. The resultant explosion blasts the luckless oak to oblivion.
In much of western Europe, Sequoiadendron, because it grows so fast and large that it sticks up well above other trees.
The results can be catastrophic . . .
http://www.pinetum.org/lightning.htm
Resin
The tall pines in the south are definitely lightning rods. They actually depend on lightning to start ground fires and kill off the competing hardwoods.
interesting..thanks
We had lightening strike the ground near our synamore and it then run up the tree and left runners in the trunk and next the tree went into shock and we are waiting to see if its going to die from it. Its a very large tree. We made a mistake when we planted this tree. Didnt have any idea it would get to be such a tall big tree. Other trees in our neighborhood that have been struck are Oaks and pines. Two of the oaks were hugh also. As you know our state is the lightening captiol of all the states so we have to watch out.....Fran
I did not know Florida was the lightening capital of all the states.
Particularly the area across the middle of the peninsula, from like Tampa to Orlando to Daytona, is called lightning alley. I think daily thunderstorms form up in the heat and humidity of the summer and prevailing winds drive them across the state.
I know in the past people used to do a lot more with lightning rods--on houses, on trees, everything. Is this an idea that got overlooked, or got proven scientifically mistaken?
Scott
Lightning struck my next door neighbor's cottonwood tree, then apparently spread across the yard and hit my garage, and then my house, this last summer. My garage door opener was fried, as was my computer. I have some sort of "ethernet adapter" on there now, otherwise I can't get online. The wind made my front door blow open, as I was pulling it shut, the doorbell blew off and I felt a shock up one arm! (The doorbell is wired through the metal siding.) I had a friend who used to take down trees, his money was on cottonwood too.
Quoting:
I know in the past people used to do a lot more with lightning rods--on houses, on trees, everything. Is this an idea that got overlooked, or got proven scientifically mistaken?
My guess would be too expensive, particularly to fit to trees.
In most houses, metal plumbing pipes perform an adequate substitute for a dedicated lightning conductor, but where these are replaced by plastic pipes, a conductor can be a valuable extra safety feature.
Resin
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