And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Interesting
A lightning strike can strip the bark off a tree completely.
The reason for this is, when the lightning hits it super heats the water under the bark, creating nearly instantaneous steam pressure. Which blows all the bark off.
Had a poplar struck by lightning at my trout camp, a couple years ago. It did not fully strip the bark, but it definitely blew the tree out. There was bark, jagged pieces of tree, and even branches strewn about the camp. I kept some of the pieces of the tree which were blown out. They look like miniature lightning bolts.
Saw a poplar hit like that in Virginia. Stripped the bark and left a channel in the tree like barbershop pole. Basically ran up the water channel. Saw small light weight shards of wood stuck in the mud an inch like darts. There was a hole in the ground and dirt pulled up onto the trunk as the electron flow goes upward. Interesting stuff...
We had a large wild cherry struck in our backyard, and the tree exploded. There were huge, razor sharp chunks all over the yard. Anyone in the yard at the time would have been killed.
Electricity on a conductor usually just travels along the surface. It's called skin effect. The cambrium and sapwood is right near the surface, so it makes sense that when the sap boils off a steam explosion strips the tree. I've read that when a human is struck by high voltage, it travels the bones to ground, and when it jumps the joints, there is a steam explosion, too. Similar result...
I had one of my palm trees struck by lightning back in '19. Palms are more like grass than hardwood trees and there's no bark to blow off like that. Instead, it had a group of top to bottom splits spaced around the trunk (or stem, really).
Basically, the tree was dead from the moment of the lightning strike, it just didn't know it, and the fronds didn't turn and start falling off for 3 or 4 months.
A few decades ago I was camping in a tent with a girlfriend and her tween son, and a thunderstorm rolled through the area. The girlfriend was totally panicking while her son was totally indifferent to the danger we were (potentially) in. I was trying to keep the girlfriend calm, although internally I was about as scared as I ever was in my life. I also kept thinking of the phrase "you're more likely to get hit by lightning than you are to win the lottery!"
Then there were two lightning strikes VERY close to our tent, one on either side of us. You could hear the BOOM! at the same instant as you saw the flash; you could also smell the ozone. So I said we all needed to get dressed and look for a motel. We finally found a room at the 6th motel we visited. The other 5 motels either had no vacancies or else had no electrical power (one of those other motels had part of its roof blown off by the storm).
So we finally got into the motel room where we felt safer from the storm, and then I teased the girlfriend's son because he had his t-shirt on inside out. I said, "It looks like you got dressed in a hurry!" So then I looked down, and my t-shirt was also on inside out.
The following morning we returned to our campsite. I could see one of the trees that had been hit by lightning, as all of its bark was off from one side of it. I paced off the distance as only 210 feet from our tent. Yikes.
Gesundheit!
ReplyDeleteTulip Poplar can get pretty tall so that didn’t help.
ReplyDeleteHad a poplar struck by lightning at my trout camp, a couple years ago. It did not fully strip the bark, but it definitely blew the tree out. There was bark, jagged pieces of tree, and even branches strewn about the camp. I kept some of the pieces of the tree which were blown out. They look like miniature lightning bolts.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the idiot doing wearing a mask?. It doesn't protect you from lightning either.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beard.
DeleteSaw a poplar hit like that in Virginia. Stripped the bark and left a channel in the tree like barbershop pole. Basically ran up the water channel. Saw small light weight shards of wood stuck in the mud an inch like darts. There was a hole in the ground and dirt pulled up onto the trunk as the electron flow goes upward. Interesting stuff...
We had a large wild cherry struck in our backyard, and the tree exploded. There were huge, razor sharp chunks all over the yard. Anyone in the yard at the time would have been killed.
ReplyDeleteElectricity on a conductor usually just travels along the surface. It's called skin effect. The cambrium and sapwood is right near the surface, so it makes sense that when the sap boils off a steam explosion strips the tree. I've read that when a human is struck by high voltage, it travels the bones to ground, and when it jumps the joints, there is a steam explosion, too. Similar result...
ReplyDeleteAnd the wood will not burn in a fire.
ReplyDeleteI had one of my palm trees struck by lightning back in '19. Palms are more like grass than hardwood trees and there's no bark to blow off like that. Instead, it had a group of top to bottom splits spaced around the trunk (or stem, really).
ReplyDeleteBasically, the tree was dead from the moment of the lightning strike, it just didn't know it, and the fronds didn't turn and start falling off for 3 or 4 months.
Too bad there's no way to contain and use all that energy.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean. The flux capacitor can contain and use all 1.21 jigawatts.
DeleteA few decades ago I was camping in a tent with a girlfriend and her tween son, and a thunderstorm rolled through the area. The girlfriend was totally panicking while her son was totally indifferent to the danger we were (potentially) in. I was trying to keep the girlfriend calm, although internally I was about as scared as I ever was in my life. I also kept thinking of the phrase "you're more likely to get hit by lightning than you are to win the lottery!"
ReplyDeleteThen there were two lightning strikes VERY close to our tent, one on either side of us. You could hear the BOOM! at the same instant as you saw the flash; you could also smell the ozone. So I said we all needed to get dressed and look for a motel. We finally found a room at the 6th motel we visited. The other 5 motels either had no vacancies or else had no electrical power (one of those other motels had part of its roof blown off by the storm).
So we finally got into the motel room where we felt safer from the storm, and then I teased the girlfriend's son because he had his t-shirt on inside out. I said, "It looks like you got dressed in a hurry!" So then I looked down, and my t-shirt was also on inside out.
The following morning we returned to our campsite. I could see one of the trees that had been hit by lightning, as all of its bark was off from one side of it. I paced off the distance as only 210 feet from our tent. Yikes.
Rusty W