Thursday, September 22, 2011

When Lightning and Tree Meet


I was looking through some pictures we have taken over the last couple of months and ran across this one I though I would share. It is of a large Ash tree behind #1 green that was hit by lightning on August 22nd. The tree was hit much higher then the top of the picture but this shows all the things that happen when the moisture inside the tree expands in a instant. The bark has been blown off in streaks going up and down the trunk. The sod has been blown off around the base of the tree and along some of the shallower roots. We will be keeping an eye on the tree to see if it is going to make it, but from what we have seen in the past it should probably survive the strike, thought the quality of the tree itself is usually degraded.

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