On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:28:04 +0100, Mark Annand
wrote:

These aren't photos of the lightning itself, but 12 images of a tree
near work after Thursday evening's thunderstorms.

A lightning strike had removed two long lengths of bark on different
sides of the tree, and a small patch near the ground opposite the first
two. More than a little wood had been ejected too and thrown some
distance: splinters up to five feet long were scattered across the field
for around a hundred feet as well as shards of bark, many with
characteristic fraying at the ends.

Various IT systems within 600 yards 'weren't at all happy' at this
event, though most were ok after a restart. My pc swore at me when it
started the next day, showed me a cmos setup screen and thought it was
2001. I can't say I blame it.

Link with irresponsibly large image files:

http://users.bathspa.ac.uk/annm1/lightning/

Link with webby sized image files:

http://users.bathspa.ac.uk/annm1/lightning_web/


The picture with the barbed wire shows some blackening of the wire,
also the "scar" ends at the barbed wire, suggesting the discharge
jumped to the earthed wire.