A Photographer Captures the Moment a Lightning Strikes a Tree!

Debbie Parker is a fan of meteorological phenomena from Hardy County in the United States. She recently managed to take a photo that became the hit of the day on American Twitter. It was popularized by the "weatherman" of one of the television stations, Anthony Conn. The woman captured the exact moment when the tree was struck by lightning. For some it looks like a spine during an X-ray. Others are fascinated by the fire going from the very top to the bottom. This is what the photo looks like:

Taking shelter under a tree is the worst thing you can do. If lightning strikes a tree, there is a likelihood that its grounding charge will spread from it in all directions. Taking shelter under a tree is the second most common cause of lightning strike accidents.

Although it sometimes seems so, lightning generally does not strike at random. Most often, it discharges into areas where there is a suitable electrical potential. In more than 90% of lightning strikes, the clouds from which it "comes out" are overloaded with electrons (experts call this ‘negative charge’). Clouds very much want to get rid of these electrons, but they will generally do so only if they find a place on the ground that does not have enough electrons (it is ‘positively charged’). When they find them, and the air resistance around these bodies is low, then lightning comes out of the clouds.

Trees are often the tallest objects in an area and have many pointed tips. The electric field is strongest near the pointy end of an electrical conductor, so trees often make excellent targets for lightning. Trees don't always conduct electricity as well as humans do, because we are composed mostly of water and they are not. The current from a lightning strike can leave the tree, 'jump' onto you and travel through your body to the ground.