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Thread: Whoa Now!! Too damn close.

  1. #1
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    Whoa Now!! Too damn close.

    We had some severe thunderstorms move through Ga. today. It was a little after 7 pm tonight
    and the storms were picking up in intensity around my home. I was upstairs in my room
    when a huge flash appeared outside my window with an almost instant BOOM, while my
    mind was registering this a 12x14" wooden plaque fell from the wall behind me, yeah it shook
    the house that hard. While my mind was registering this and I turn to see what fell, I hear a
    LOUD sizzling sound outside, I turn back to look out the window and there is a tree glowing gold,
    orange and red with sparks that are a brilliant silver arching off the conflagration like a welders rod.
    This is happening about 10' off the ground and no more than 100' feet from where I am standing with
    a wide open mouth and the wide eyes of astonishment. This took maybe 2 seconds, then the lights
    dimmed, flickered and were gone. After a few moments I faded back into real time and realized
    my wife was screaming. "JACKIE DID THAT HIT THE HOUSE!? JACKIE I THINK THAT HIT THE HOUSE,
    DID THAT HIT THE HOUSE!?!?!?
    I was never so proud to say "No! No it didn't, it didn't hit the house honey! No it didn't but it was damn close!"

    I am a blessed man.
    Last edited by l921428x; 08-10-2015 at 10:31 PM.
    While no one ever listens to me,
    I am constantly being told to be quiet.

    In a world of snowflakes,
    be the heat..

  2. #2
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Yup, you were lucky on that one. It's really cool seeing what lightning can do to a tree, but it is scary if you're close by when it strikes.

    A few years ago, I was sitting on the porch (unenclosed), during a t-storm, and watching it rain when lightning hits one of my trees about 90 feet away. The crack of the bolt made me deaf for about 10 seconds and the shock wave that hit the house was like a physical punch. It blew bark and pieces of wood over 200 feet away from the tree. That tree is still alive today...

    Pretty neat to see happen, but I really don't need to see one that close again.
    "Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris."

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  3. #3
    Senior Member Aggressive Perfector's Avatar

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    Glad y'all and your house is fine, but I bet that's a hell of a cool sight you'll never forget.
    "Never take pity on a blind man. He may not be able to see, but he saves a fortune by getting the butt ugly hookers".

  4. #4
    Forum Administrator Schuetzenman's Avatar

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    You got lucky for sure. That it hit so close and that your electronics didn't get fried is a minor miracle in and of itself. As a kid we liven in Stamford CT. (3 years only). A lightening bolt hit a tree 200 yards away across the street. The owners of that property had put up a swing and used a galvanized steel pipe to hang it from up in the branches. The lightening hit the pipe, split the tree, burned it etc. The worst part was we were all on wells there. The ground was mostly granite rock in the area, so no public water main or system. The lightening ran through the ground and fried our well pump, so instantly no water.

  5. #5
    Team Gunsnet Platinum 06/2016 ltorlo64's Avatar

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    That sounds cool, in a maybe I would like to see that once in my life sort of way! Glad it was not any closer!

    When I was stationed in Great Lakes, IL for a while when I first enlisted. We lived across the street from the Gunner's Mate School, a huge glass and steel building with lightening rods along the top, just a little above our window level. Once night, about 2 am our room went from black to brilliant light followed immediately by an explosion, we knew the Gunner's Mate School had blown up. Then we realized that it was a lightening strike on one of the lightening rods on the building. We didn't sleep well the rest of the night!

    When I was in Florida we had another incident that I did not see, just heard about and saw the aftermath from. A sailor was walking between two buildings during a storm. He was on the sidewalk and the sidewalk was lined with street lights, probably about 12 feet tall with a lightening rod at the top of each. As he walked by one of the street lights a lightening strike hit the pole where he was at and the thunder knocked him out. For a while we were concerned that he had been hit by the lightening, but he had not been, just knocked silly by the thunder clap.

    I like to watch lightening storms, but from a respectful distance, inside, away from metal objects. Glad you and your family are safe and nothing much was hurt.
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    Senior Member L1A1Rocker's Avatar

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    Glad you are all safe.
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    Update: That tree is 40+ feet tall and 8-10" in dia.
    It is still standing but there is no bark left on it and recently
    the Woodpeckers have just now started taking an interest in the tree.
    It is a Pine BTW.
    While no one ever listens to me,
    I am constantly being told to be quiet.

    In a world of snowflakes,
    be the heat..

  8. #8
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by l921428x View Post
    Update: That tree is 40+ feet tall and 8-10" in dia.
    It is still standing but there is no bark left on it and recently
    the Woodpeckers have just now started taking an interest in the tree.
    It is a Pine BTW.
    Once woodpeckers start on it, it won't live much longer. I've got one tree that has 100's of woodpecker holes init and it, probably, doesn't have much longer to live. All of the bark is wet with sap now.
    "Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris."

    Commucrats are most efficient at converting sins and crimes to accidents or misunderstandings.-Oswald Bastable

    Making good people helpless won't make bad people harmless.

    Freedom isn't free.

    "Attitude is the paintbrush that colors our world." TV Series, Haven.

    My Spirit Animal has rabies.

    I'd rather be an American than a Democrat.

    "If you can make a man afraid, you can control him" Netflix Series, The Irregulars

  9. #9
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    ali I think it got killed when it got struck.
    While no one ever listens to me,
    I am constantly being told to be quiet.

    In a world of snowflakes,
    be the heat..

  10. #10
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by l921428x View Post
    ali I think it got killed when it got struck.
    Okay, but I was referring to any living tree that woodpeckers attack. I have a Full grown Christmas tree out front that the woodpeckers have taken a liking to and they're bleeding it dry. Holes everywhere and sap is always running down the bark. I have an idea it's days are numbered.

    I, originally, thought woodpeckers only attacked dead trees, but I guess not.

    I have two trees that have been struck by lightning, both oaks, with large sections blown out and they're still alive, however, I wouldn't say they're in the best of health, either.
    "Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris."

    Commucrats are most efficient at converting sins and crimes to accidents or misunderstandings.-Oswald Bastable

    Making good people helpless won't make bad people harmless.

    Freedom isn't free.

    "Attitude is the paintbrush that colors our world." TV Series, Haven.

    My Spirit Animal has rabies.

    I'd rather be an American than a Democrat.

    "If you can make a man afraid, you can control him" Netflix Series, The Irregulars

  11. #11
    Senior Member JTHunter's Avatar

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    Ali - the woodpeckers are after the bugs living in the living tree, frequently in the cambium under the bark, although some may be deeper.
    Now, a member of the woodpecker family, the sapsuckers, also drill holes, usu. in horizontal lines, as they like the sap. The leaking sap also draws bugs they eat and they don't have to work as hard to get them.
    Unfortunately, these holes also allow various diseases and fungi to get a foothold in the tree and this is what will kill the tree. It may take only 2-3 years but can be as long as 10 years but it is inevitable.
    “I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American’s guarantee of freedom.” - - President Harry S. Truman, “Years of Trial and Hope”

  12. #12
    Team Guns Network Silver 04/2013 alismith's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by JTHunter View Post
    Ali - the woodpeckers are after the bugs living in the living tree, frequently in the cambium under the bark, although some may be deeper.
    Now, a member of the woodpecker family, the sapsuckers, also drill holes, usu. in horizontal lines, as they like the sap. The leaking sap also draws bugs they eat and they don't have to work as hard to get them.
    Unfortunately, these holes also allow various diseases and fungi to get a foothold in the tree and this is what will kill the tree. It may take only 2-3 years but can be as long as 10 years but it is inevitable.
    Yeah, I know most woodpeckers are looking for bugs, but for a long time I thought they only "attacked" dead trees, as they hold the most bugs.

    However, I think you've identified the species that has attacked my Christmas tree. It has to be a sapsucker as the tree was healthy and the holes they left are in horizontal rows, with a lot of sap running all over the place.

    I guess they are aptly named....
    "Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris."

    Commucrats are most efficient at converting sins and crimes to accidents or misunderstandings.-Oswald Bastable

    Making good people helpless won't make bad people harmless.

    Freedom isn't free.

    "Attitude is the paintbrush that colors our world." TV Series, Haven.

    My Spirit Animal has rabies.

    I'd rather be an American than a Democrat.

    "If you can make a man afraid, you can control him" Netflix Series, The Irregulars

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