You've probably heard me talk (and complain) about this already. Here are just a few pictures to prove that I'm not making stuff up. They're big. Wait. They will eventually come.
Both pictures are of the same tree. The shadows are just cast a bit differently in each. First is taken from the southwest side; second from the south-southwest side. The lightning seems to have struck right down the center and jumped out of both sides (the east side of the tree also has some damage, but its only minor). It then surfaced and exited the entire side of the tree. Its notable that while it was doing this, it was also ejected tons of material from the inside of the tree (see ground). Debris was found as far was 25meters. Since there's relativly little external damage, it must have all come from the center. (Indeed there is proof of this... if you stick your hand down the cracks, its very difficult to reach all the way into solidity.) And when it reached the bottom, it was far enough out on the surface that it just exploded. These are Queen Palms, so the trunks are made of large chunks of "branch". They just got spewed into the rest of the yard. Neat, eh?
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