Most of you reading this have probably experienced a lightning storm at some point in your life. As the clouds above crash, creating thunder, and the static and charged particles in the air create the lightning that goes with it, most of us are smart enough to find cover, which is why lightning storms claim very few lives every year.
But they do kill thousands of trees per year.
You’ve probably toured an area after a particularly strong lightning storm, awestricken to find the horribly mangled remains of trees that were more than a hundred years old. You also probably remember being told as a kid to stay away from trees during a lightning storm. But have you ever considered the science behind the warning?
Of course, it seems logical that a tree would act as a lightning rod, especially if it is the tallest thing in the middle of a field. But trees are made of wood, and wood is supposed to be an insulator, not a conductor of electricity. So why do so many get hit with lightning? It happens for the same reason that they also explode.
Trees, like animals and people, are living organisms that need a fair amount of water to survive. The tallness of trees may be what makes them susceptible to lightning strikes, but it is the water the lightning is attracted to and what makes the strikes so fatal.
As soon as lightning hits a tree, it turns the tree’s water into gas, causing its outer layers to explode, which is where trees store most of their water. About 50 percent of trees hit by a bolt of lightning die immediately after, and a small percentage more die in the ensuing months, usually during the winter. If one of your trees is hit by lightning and survives the initial assault, you should give it plenty of water and fertilizer. It may also help to cut away branches that will probably die anyway.