Lightning splits tree in half, blows ‘the trunk right out’
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IDAHO FALLS — A lightning strike hit a large tree at an Idaho Falls home Thursday afternoon, causing debris and tree limbs to fly over 100 feet away.
James Clayton lives on Riverview Drive and says when he came home from a lunch appointment, he noticed the 30-year-old tree in his front yard was split down the middle.
“You can see where the electricity came down, and then it traveled until it blew the trunk right out of the side,” Clayton tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We found debris clear out in the street and all over the lawn.”
The tree is around 100 feet tall and its trunk is 8 to 10 feet, Clayton said. He mowed the lawn Thursday morning and everything was fine. When he came home for lunch — after the lightning strike — he noticed large parts of the tree scattered throughout his property.
“I’ve got chunks that are 6 to 8 feet long lying on the ground,” he says. “It doesn’t look like anything else was hit but the tree.”
The National Weather Service counted hundreds of lightning strikes Thursday, and severe weather is expected to continue into the evening. There have been reports of severe hail damage throughout east Idaho with golf ball-sized hail falling in some areas.
The lightning strike caused Clayton to lose power and he is planning to remove what’s left of the tree from his property.
“We’re lucky it didn’t hit the house. The way the prevailing wind hits, it would blow it over,” Clayton says.
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