Lightning and trees

We’ve looked at lightning issues before. Please see “Ground strikes and lightning protection of buried cables.”

This headline below was found online at the URL hyperlinked here.

Recent headline from the local paper. Source: ABC7NY

This ABC NY article describes how a teenage boy tried to take refuge from the rain in a thunderstorm by getting under the canopy of a tree. In that article, we find this quote: “The teen had no way of knowing that the tree would be hit by lightning.”

This quote, apparently the opinion of the article’s author, is absolutely incorrect. It is total and unforgivable rubbish.

Even when I was knee-high to Jiminy Cricket, I was told over and over and over by my parents NEVER to try to get away from rain by hiding under a tree. Any tree that you come across will have its leaves reaching way up into the air, and those wet leaves are a prime target for a lightning strike, as illustrated in this screenshot:

Conceptual image of lightning striking tree. Source: Stockvault

Somebody didn’t impart this basic safety lesson to this teenager. It is miraculous that this teenager survived the event. The above article cites second-degree burns, but a radio item that I heard about this incident also cites nerve damage and a great deal of lingering pain.

Recovery is expected.

John Dunn is an electronics consultant, and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).

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