What can I do if one of my trees has been hit by lightning? ASK THE HORT AGENT
Question What can I do if one of my trees has been hit by lightning?
Answer You need to go outside (after the storm has passed) throw your arms around the tree and give it a big ole kiss goodbye. The tree may look fine, but most of the time it is already dead. Think how pretty your “live” Christmas tree looks during the Christmas holidays. We call it a “live” tree, but the tree was actually killed when it was cut down.
In the turbulent winds inside thunderclouds, water droplets and ice crystals collide with one another. Scientists believe that this process builds up charges of electricity. The positive and negative electrical charges in the cloud separate from one another. The negative ions drop to the lower part of the cloud and the positive ions stay in the middle and upper parts. Positive electrical charges also build on the ground below. When the difference in the charges becomes large enough, then a flow of negative ions moves from the cloud down to the ground. When the positive charges leap upward to meet the negative charges, the jagged downward path of the negative charges suddenly lights up with a brilliant flash of light - a bolt of lightning. This electrical balancing act takes less than a millionth of a second. It happens so fast, our eyes fool us into thinking the lightning bolt shoots down from the cloud. In fact, the lightning travels up from the ground.
Lightning strikes trees because they reach into the sky. Trees provide a pathway for positive charges from the ground to the negative ions contained in thunderclouds. Dry wood is a poor conductor of electricity. However, the sap within a tree conducts much better than air, and therefore completes the circuit from ground to sky.
Along the path of the strike, sap boils and the gas in the wood expands, often with explosive consequences. Trees are usually killed when the strike passes completely through the trunk, leaving a path of splintered bark on each side.
Luckily, less than a third of people hit by lightning are actually killed. Even with those odds, between 150 and 200 people are killed by lightning each year in the US.
Because of their height, trees are more likely to be hit by lightning than a person. Unlike people, trees lack the ability to repair cellular damage.
The bad news is that you are more likely to be struck by lightning if you are standing under a tree. The good news is that you are more likely to live than the tree. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call the Extension Office (but not during a thunderstorm) at 893-7533, write us at PO Box 1089, Lillington, NC 27546, or email me at gary_pierce@ncsu.edu
If your tree was hit by lightning, hang some ornaments on it and sing a few Christmas carols. In a couple months you will probably be getting rid of it.
Gary L. Pierce
Horticulture Extension Agent
Harnett County | 
