Thunderbolts and Lightning, very very frightening

Weather Update for 12 July – 18 July 2015

High Temp: 90.0

Low Temp: 54.1

Humidity: 31% - 94%

Rainfall: Zip

Cheryl's News from Camp Webegone

Thorsday, July 9, 2015

Kaboom! And lightning crashed down into the Natural Bridge Campground.

Fortunately for us, it was raining at the time (over and inch in less than an hour), so it wasn't the fire hazard it would otherwise have been. Still scary though!

Lightning-struck tree

That day, we had heavy rainfall. There was even a brief period of hail the size of blueberries (during which when I opened the door, our cat, Mimi, bolted for her safe place in the woods). End of the day, big puddles, 2” deep in our campsite. And site 6 was a lake with about 6” of water throughout. Six inches of water and a black lab sitting and playing in it. That was how our day ended.

All sites were impacted by the storm, but all the campers stayed. Real campers, all.

The next day Rich and went on an explore to locate where the lightening struck. As it turned out, one bolt had hit four trees. That made us curious, so we asked around. The park ranger said the lightening probably hit the lead tree, then ricocheted to two other trees, and finally ricocheted off one of those trees to hit the fourth tree, the smallest tree of the four hit.

We also asked around about why the bark was stripped off the tree. There was a physicist staying at the campground at the time, and he said that when lightening strikes a tree, the moisture under the bark instantly vaporizes, which creates a force that blows the bark off of the tree. 

Now, isn't that something.

Cheryl