Lightning strike on a tree: will it survive, and is it safe?

What a lightning strike does to a tree

The damage ranges from a scorch mark to a tree blown apart. UC IPM’s guide to lightning injury lists what to look for: sometimes a long vertical streak of bark and wood killed from the strike point toward the ground, bark loosened or blown off the trunk, and a trunk that may split with bark hanging in shreds. A strike can also snap off upper limbs or the top, make a tree burn or explode, and kill the top or the whole tree.

The part you cannot see matters as much. The same guide warns that lightning can seriously damage roots and the inner wood of trunks and limbs with nothing showing outside. In the months that follow, wood under damaged bark may grow abnormally into galls, and roots can sprout from odd places on the trunk.

Fire is the other risk. The National Weather Service notes that flashes with continuing current, sometimes called hot lightning, are more likely to start fires. And a struck tree is a weakened tree: UC IPM says lightning-injured trees often attract bark beetles, wood borers and decay fungi and die early. For ponderosa pine, the Forest Service lists lightning among the injuries that make trees more open to western pine beetle, which ranges through Washington and Oregon.

Is a lightning-struck tree safe? The first checks

Safety: Stay inside until 30 minutes after the last thunder, as the National Weather Service advises. If the tree is smoking or burning, call 911. If a line is down or sagging, stay at least 50 feet away, as Portland General Electric advises, and call the utility; a downed line does not have to spark to be dangerous.

Smoke or fire. Oregon’s Department of Forestry says to report a wildfire by calling 9-1-1, and a struck tree can start one long after the storm. Do not assume it is out because the flames are. NOAA’s wildfire entry for the north Oregon Cascades in 2017 describes a June lightning start that smoldered unnoticed in a tree until July 23, when the tree fell into brush and started a fire that burned on into September.

Wires. If the tree or its limbs touch a power line, leave it to the utility. Oregon OSHA keeps unqualified workers at least 10 feet from energized lines of 50 kV or less and requires the power company to be told when a tree may fall within 10 feet of a line (OAR 437-002-0306); Washington’s electrical-work rules (WAC 296-45) define the trained line-clearance tree trimmers who do that work. Utility contacts are collected under utility tree trimming.

Loose wood overhead. A split trunk or a broken limb hung up in the crown can drop without warning. ISA’s tree-risk checklist flags detached, hanging branches and cracks or splits in the trunk, so keep people, pets and cars out of reach of the tree until a crew has dealt with it. A struck tree that is actively coming apart over a house or road is a job for emergency tree service.

Lightning damage signs and what they mean

Walk around the whole tree once it is safe, then look up into the crown with binoculars. The signs below run roughly from most to least urgent.

Sources: UC IPM, Lightning; USDA Forest Service FIDL 1, Western Pine Beetle; NOAA Storm Events narrative, North Oregon Cascades, July 2017; Portland General Electric; checked 2026-10-02.

Splits deserve the closest look: ISA’s risk brochure lists cracks and splits in the trunk among the defects that can lead to failure. Split tree trunk covers what to do about one.

Will a tree survive a lightning strike?

Sometimes, and the honest answer usually takes a season. None of the extension and Forest Service sources we checked gives a survival rate, so treat any percentage you hear as a guess. What decides it is how much of the trunk was killed, whether the roots and inner wood were hurt, whether insects and decay move in, and how the tree is cared for afterward.

UC IPM’s checklist after a strike is short: an arborist inspection right away, because the tree may be hazardous; pruning to reduce hazards; tacking loosened bark back over the wounds and moistening it now and then; appropriate irrigation; and periodic reinspection.

1. Wait out the stormStay in shelter at least 30 minutes after the last thunder (National Weather Service).
2. Check for smoke and wiresCall 911 for any fire. For wires, stay 50 feet back and call the utility.
3. Clear the drop zoneKeep people, pets and cars out from under split stems and hanging limbs.
4. Photograph the damageShoot the strike path, splits and anything the tree hit. Homeowner policies usually pay to remove a tree only when it damaged a covered structure such as the house, garage or car (Washington Insurance Commissioner; Oregon Division of Financial Regulation).
5. Book an arborist inspectionAsk for the limbs, trunk and root zone to be checked. A tree risk assessment puts the findings in writing.
6. Tack loose bark and waterLoose bark goes back over the wound and is kept moist; water the tree through dry spells.

Then watch it through the next growing season. ISA’s mature-tree guidance names four vitality signs to check: new leaf or bud formation, leaf size, twig growth, and no crown dieback. For pines, the Forest Service notes that trees attacked by western pine beetle in late summer or fall often do not fade until the following spring, so a struck pine that looks fine in October is not in the clear yet. If a tree fails those checks, how to tell if a tree is dead covers the next steps, and a decayed trunk later on is covered in mushrooms on trees.

What NOAA records show for Washington and Oregon

NOAA’s Storm Events Database holds 226 lightning reports for Washington (106) and Oregon (120) from 1996 through June 2026. These are report rows, not strikes. Under the National Weather Service’s Storm Data rules, a lightning event is entered when a direct strike on a person or object causes a death, an injury or significant damage, or when it is otherwise significant or newsworthy. For scale, the NWS says lightning hits the United States about 25 million times a year.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, lightning report rows by begin year, checked 2026-10-02. Counts are reports, not unique storms or strikes.

Reports fell from about 15 a year across both states in the late 1990s to about 1 a year since 2016, and 145 of the 224 reports from 1996 to 2025 (65%) came in the first nine years; the single busiest year was 1999, with 23. Read that as a change in what got reported and entered. Nothing in the database measures how often lightning actually hits, and it is not a complete record of struck trees. Every one of the 15 lightning reports from 2016 through June 2026 began between May and September.

Recent strikes on trees in NOAA’s narratives

Lightning protection systems for valuable trees

A lightning protection system does not stop strikes. It gives the charge a preferred path to ground, through rods near the top of the tree wired down the trunk to the ground. The U.S. standard is ANSI A300 Part 4, Lightning Protection Systems, developed by the Tree Care Industry Association as secretariat; it covers tools and equipment, materials, conductors, connectors and fasteners, ground terminals and installation practices.

UC IPM puts it plainly for homeowners: where lightning is common, rods wired to the ground can be installed at the top of especially valuable, tall specimen trees. ISA lists installing lightning protection systems among the services arborists provide; ask any installer whether the system follows ANSI A300 Part 4. An arborist can tell you whether a big Douglas fir or oak beside the house is a reasonable candidate.