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A woman in West Virginia snapped a one-in-a-million shot of a tree being struck by lightning.

Anthony Conn, a weekend anchor for WCHS, posted the photo to his Twitter account. The photo was sent to him by a woman named Debbie Parker in Hardy County, West Virginia.

sunnyskyz.com/blog/3448/One-In…

@photography
#lightning

A lightning bolt ⚡️ visible from an overcast sky to a tree standing in a grassy field. The timing perfectly captures both the bolt in the sky and the fiery bolt from the top of the tree to the ground along the left edge of the mostly straight trunk. The light effect makes the tree glow with a reddish orange light.

One In A Million Moment As Lightning Strikes A Tree

Sunny Skyz
#lightning @photography group
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Six Grandfathers Mountain
Six Grandfathers Mountain
• •

RE
a tree being struck by lightning

The original photo and info is here
forestleaves.blog/post/bolts-f…

I came up to a tree about 15 min AFTER a tree like this was hit by lightning
One side had long 3 meter slices of the tree, like 4 long sharp spears on the ground
facing away from the tree

If a person was on the opposite side they would probably not have been hurt by the exploding fragments


Bolts from the blue: lightning and forest fires

Lightning arcing through a conifer tree in Arizona, USA (photo sent to me by Phil Cheney)Like most people, lightning both scares and fascinates me.
yorkgum (Forest Leaves)

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食 Shoku the MN Wolf
食 Shoku the MN Wolf
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Yeah, I'm not buying it. The lighting is completely wrong. The leaves are being illuminated from the camera side, the lightning bolt has no feeders, and the bolt itself is way too underexposed. The tree is brighter.

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Wilhelm Gere
Wilhelm Gere
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@TheMNWolf
Still from a video of an actual strike. The ones in the pics look too skinny. I witnessed a car getting hit in a parking lot not far from where we were standing, it wasn't small, I'd say at least 2 feet across

9news.com/article/weather/weat…

Lightning struck a tree in Parker and this guy caught it on video Fortunately, it didn't result in any injuries or damage.
@食 Shoku the MN Wolf

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earthling
earthling
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Another photo of a tree struck by lightning by Noel J.

#lightning

#lightning

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Steve Foerster 🌐
Steve Foerster 🌐
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1.21 gigawatts!

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earthling
earthling
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A gigawatt is actually on the low side – lightning power may be a thousand times that, reaching into the terawatts, though the average is probably tens of gigawatts.

Source:
There's Way More Energy in a Bolt of Lightning Than We Thought

sciencealert.com/scientists-ar…

There's Way More Energy in a Bolt of Lightning Than We Thought : ScienceAlert

For most of human history, people have been terrified by lightning.
ScienceAlert Staff (ScienceAlert)
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earthling
earthling
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@stevefoerster
#Lightning generates temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun, in excess of 20,000 degrees Celsius.

It takes a specific amount of energy to vaporise sand into gas. First the sand has to be heated to around 1700°C, about the temperature of molten lava.

At this temperature, the sand melts. The molten sand then has to heat to just shy of 3000°C, when it vaporises. It takes about 15 megajoules of energy to heat and vaporise a kilogram of sand.

#fulgurite

#lightning #fulgurite @Steve Foerster 🌐

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lippyduck
lippyduck
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Looks an awful lot like the same tree. Two in a million?

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F4GRX Sébastien
F4GRX Sébastien
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if two people made the pic it's only a one in 500 000 shot moment!
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AngharadHafod
AngharadHafod
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@f4grx a 1 in 1000 I think. (i.e. 1 in sqrt(1000000)).

It seems to be it would be easier just to Photoshop it. 🤔

@F4GRX Sébastien

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A bruxa quase boa do Agreste
A bruxa quase boa do Agreste
• •
o nascimento da árvore-de-natal. E assim, surgiu o pisca-pisca.

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Brandon Trabon
Brandon Trabon
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What an amazing shot; a couple weeks ago lightning was dancing through the clouds at night. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone with me.

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Bernie the Wordsmith
Bernie the Wordsmith
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ALT: A Lightning is captured in the precise moment that is phasing trough a tree. The light effect makes the tree glow with a reddish orange light, slightly resembling a Christmas tree. Well, if the Christmas tree was made by Viktor Frankenstein, that is #alt4u
#alt4u

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Werner Rhein
Werner Rhein
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and then you wonder why whole forests start to burn.

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earthling
earthling
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A sun dog (or sundog) or mock sun, also called a parhelion (plural parhelia) in atmospheric science, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Sun. Two sun dogs often flank the Sun within a 22° halo.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog

#SunDog

atmospheric optical phenomenon

Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
#sundog
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Giuda
Giuda
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Le linee perfette di una funzione matematica hanno un fascino ideale
Ma le linee frastagliate dei fulmini hanno un che di misterioso e sfuggente come la loro durata
Le adoro

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BrianKrebs
BrianKrebs
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This photo is amazing. It makes me really want to see a follow-up photo of what it did to the tree.

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Six Grandfathers Mountain
Six Grandfathers Mountain
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@briankrebs
RE
want to see a follow-up photo of what it did to the tree

this image, exactly like I saw, post #lightningstrike a tree

I posted this in _this_ thread, "One side had long 3 meter slices of the tree, like 4 sharp spears on the ground facing away from the tree"

like long fingers of these sharp spears, like spokes on a bicycle wheel, only on ONE SIDE of the tree

there was a coffee cup wide and deep hole in the earth at the base (not this photo)

only one side of a tree explodes when hit by lightning maybe 1/3 of the tree shoots out long spear like sharp wood blades they seem to travel out only 1 or 2 meters from the tree
#lightningstrike @BrianKrebs
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Vegetable Gremlin ⍼​👻
Vegetable Gremlin ⍼​👻
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goin a bit overboard with the christmas decorations dont u think

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earthling
earthling
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What Happens When A Tree Is Struck By Lightning?

When lightning blasts a tree, the impact can be felt instantaneously. The moment it hits, it turns the tree’s water into gas, causing the plant’s outer layers to explode outwards. This effect is catastrophic; 50% of trees hit by a bolt die immediately while others suffer extensive damage, making them vulnerable to diseases.

Among the most common tree species that get hit by lightning are oak, gum, maple, poplar, and pine trees.
1

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earthling
earthling
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2/
When a tree gets hit by lightning, there are three possible outcomes: The tree escapes damage; it suffers damage but survives with nothing but a scar; it dies.

The Tree Survives

Most of the trees’ water content is stored just under the bark. With water being a superb electrical conductor, the lightning strike will penetrate the outer layers of the tree obliterate them. Lightning blasts will typically scar a tree.

#trees
#lightning

#trees #lightning

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earthling
earthling
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3/
The Tree Escapes Damage

There are times when heavy rain has soaked the tree’s exterior. When this happens, there’s a chance that the lightning will just cascade around the tree and leave it relatively unscathed.

#trees
#lightning

#trees #lightning

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earthling
earthling
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4/
The Tree Dies

Dying trees will typically have one or more areas that are being ravaged by disease. Since these have most of their water content concentrated deeper in their trunk, any lightning strike can fully penetrate the plant’s center and utterly destroy the tree. This can cause a powerful explosion that will send large and small branches flying (including splinters and huge chunks of wood), and even split the trunk into two.

americanarborists.net/tree-tip…

#trees
#lightning


What to Do If Your Tree Is Struck by Lightning?

Lightning can undoubtedly be considered as one of the greatest threats to massive trees.
American Arborists
#trees #lightning

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earthling
earthling
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Trees located on high plateaus in Escalante Utah are susceptible to lightning strikes this one basically exploded open. The ground nearby was littered with wood splinters.

flickr.com/photos/bicyclistken…

#trees
#lightning


Electrified Tree

Trees located on high plateaus in Escalante Utah are susecptible to lightning strikes this one basically exploded open. The ground nearby was litter with wood splinters.
Flickr
#trees #lightning
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earthling
earthling
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Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP, CA

"After walking around the base of a lightning-splintered tree, I found this hole exiting from within the tree trunk. I believe it to be a lightning bolt exit hole."

Karen Williams

flickr.com/photos/karenwilliam…

#trees
#lightning


Mother Nature's Woodworking

Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP, CA After walking around the base of a lightning-splintered tree, I found this hole exiting from within the tree trunk. I believe it to be a lightning bolt exit hole.
Flickr
#trees #lightning
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Laxystem
Laxystem
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Is there any correlation between those trees being more vulnerable to lightning and them being a lot more common in video games than any other tree?

Cause like, oak is everywhere, gum trees are often used as rubber sources in Factorio-like games, maple the same for maple syrup (stardew valley), poplar is just uniquely there a lot of the time (I can only think of Foundation game, but there're more), and pine is everywhere as well (sometimes as spruce).

The only other very-popular trees I can think of are willow trees, which are usually there only as environment (Fortnite, Cities: Skylines), not as a crafting-ingredient-y tree type like other games; and birch trees. That, and of course, shroom trees (Minecraft nether trees, TerraTech, iirc Factorio, No Man's Sky, etc.), which ain't real.

#gamedev

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thefathippy
thefathippy
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Years ago I was inside watching a lightning storm approach, when there was a simultaneous flash bang. Scared the tripe outta me! Turned out a small tree about 80m from my window had been hit. The tree was left standing, sans bark, in the centre of a 10m circle of scorched and dead bush.

I've also known three survivors of lightning strikes. In one of those strikes, only 2 of 3 survived (beach fishing).

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