"Mark Annand" wrote in message
et...
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/

I have similar photos of a Scotts Pine hit last year in the Highlands. The
tree consists of two main trunks and there is a clear point where the scar
ends on one trunk and appears on the opposite trunk where the lightning must
have jumped across.
I was interested as to why the scar ran in a spiral round the tree rather
than straight down. Bark was scattered up to 50 feet away and there was a
clear hole in the ground where the strike had earthed at the base of the
tree.
The tree is about a quarter of a mile from the house, but the blast still
managed to frazzle the modem of my PC!

JP