Are Lightning Strikes Worse On Softwood Trees Than Hardwood Trees

The spark of death.

Are lightning strikes worse on softwood trees than hardwood trees.

Hardness can be said to be a function of the wood s density and hardwood trees are generally denser than softwood trees. This means that the leaves fall off in autumn and the tree remains leafless through springtime. Classifying wood as either a hardwood or softwood comes down to its physical structure and makeup and so it is overly simple to think of hardwoods as being hard and durable compared to soft and workable softwoods. When lightning strikes a tree you usually have to take a wait and see approach.

In order to prevent lightning from harming your trees you may consider installing a lightning protection system that uses copper cables attached to the tree s uppermost branches and grounded a few meters away from the tree. This happens to be generally true but there are exceptions such as in the cases of wood from yew trees a softwood that is relatively hard and wood from balsa trees a. The wood of hardwood trees has more cell types and less air spaces. Hardwood information specifies that hardwood trees are deciduous.

The electrical resistance causes the sap to be heated into steam which can make it explode. Once the lightning strikes the electricity will be diverted to the cable. Furthermore softwood trees don t enter a state of dormancy during the winter like hardwood trees. That s why some trees violently explode when struck by lightning.

Tree damage from a lightning strike. On the other hand softwood conifers do not pass the winter with bare branches. Lightning damage in trees. Although sometimes old needles.

The redwoods have considerably more heft and though will suffer some damage rarely will die completely. Qualified arborists can recommend the installation of lightning protection systems where appropriate or the proper course of action if a tree has been struck by lightning. Well most trees aren t 200 feet often 300 feet tall and 25 feet wide. When lightning hits a tree it steams water inside the tree busts bark from the trunk and branches and can even split a tree open in extreme cases.

Now what s interesting about this is that most trees do not survive lightning strikes. Unlike hardwood trees softwood trees generally don t shed their leaves once a year. Some trees die immediately from the damage while other trees will live for a number of years. Tree protection against lightning strikes.

Conifer wood contains only a few different cell types. They re fried down to the roots and don t recover. For the trees that live for a few years you can run into the problem of the lightning scars and loss of bark making the tree more exposed to insects and diseases. A few simple tests help you differentiate hardwood from softwood trees.