I've seen trees survive, but seems most die. We don't get a lot of lighting to judge that well. Are there burns?
A ponderosa pine in the neighborhood was struck, the top 1/3 cracked off, there is plenty of scarring all the way to the ground, but some lower branches are still living, and are beginning to really take off.
I'd leave it if it isn't a hazard of falling on anything.

That is such a shame. I HOPE it lives.

From my experience, I have a lot of huge pine trees, one, which was struck by lighting, and it killed the tree.

Is there a streak down the trunk showing the path of the lightning down to the ground? Could it have been wind damage? If it was lightning and there is a strip down to the ground where the bark was blown off and the wood ripped a bit, it is probably best to cut the tree down.

If this tree was struck by lightning and lives, it may be too seriously damaged to ever be a good strong tree again. If it is in an area where people often are, the tree could live but be a hazard in the future.

Sorry,

--spruce

I've seen plenty of trees with very old lightning scars down the trunk. Survival rates are often very good. I'd not remove it just because there is a lightning-cut line down one side of the trunk. Wait to see if it leafs out OK in the spring; if it does, keep it; if it doesn't, only then fell it.

Resin

In my experience, the conifers tolerate a lightning hit less favorably than hardwoods. I'd watch it carefully for a very long time, even if it does leaf out nicely for you.

Worth noting that the power of a lightning strike is very variable, from 106 to 1011 Joules; a small strike may do very little damage, while a more powerful strike can do much more; {{gwi:351460}} tree (a 2 metre diameter Giant Sequoia) did not survive.

Resin

I had a 100 ft tulip poplar that was struck at the end of the summer in 2005. It had a 10 inch diameter branch that was knocked off, it had three long furrows gouged all the way down its trunk, and leaves on its low hanging branches were blackened. The leaves all fell off over the next two weeks, but we hoped that it was because it was fall. When the bark fell off between two of the furrows we were pretty sure it was a goner. The next spring not a single leaf came back.

However the lighting also jumped to a neighboring red maple, and gouged a furrow down its trunk, and scorched some of its leaves, and that tree is fine.

-Bob

A friend's 70' Norway spruce was struck w/a resulting 6" wide gouge blown off the trunk from top to bottom. It looked anemic & hardly grew the next year, but recovered & only lost a few limbs near the bottom where the gouge went directly past.

OTOH, I saw one side of a 60' Green Ash's crown that was shattered & broken off by a strike w/most of the trunk bark also gone. Scorched gouges in the ground snaked away from the trunk -- prb'ly following roots. That tree was DOA.

I SAW a big old water oak(Q.nigra) take a lightning strike at m y parents' home about 15 years ago - a long strip of bark split from ground level as far up into the canopy as I could see. Took photos, and used 'em in a presentation on a regular basis for a number of years, but I'm not sure where they are now.
It healed up, and 'never looked back', so far as I could tell.

A big old sycamore in the pasture next to my office took a direct hit last fall - and exploded! Splinters and chunks of tree scattered for 50 yards around.

A friend's 50 foot tall live oak was struck by lightning around five years ago. The blast knocked off a strip of bark about 6" wide down the length of the tree. A "spear" of this bark, around six feet long, was thrown by the blast and speared the ground about forty feet away from the tree. He left that spear in the ground untouched for over a year.

He had the tree pruned and so far so good. I will be seeing the tree again this evening.

"had a Bradford Pear struck by lightning ... first time I was actually happy to see a tree hit"

Brilliant!

Let me reiterate my concern. Even if a tree struck by lightning lives and continues to grow, the tree may well have damage that will not only limit its lifespan, but also can make it a hazard in the future. Some trees can survive a lightning strike--small ones like resin describes--and be OK. I say OK and mean OK, not really fine. White oak survives and grows as well as any tree, and a really notable lightning survivor, or so I am told, is the larger of the two tuliptrees next to Monticello, T. Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, VA. This tree is aver 8 feet in diameter and is, I am told, hollow from the old lightning damage. But the tree has closed its wound completely and you can't see any trace of it now.

But in my old neighborhood in Arlington, VA a really huge tuliptree was struck a few years ago and the lightning made a path between a fork in the tree that had a good "bridge" of wood between. At this point the bridge was killed and unless one looked very carefully one would not see this critical damage. This tree is so large that if this now killed bridge splits, a house could be crushed and people killed.

Even if a tree just has a streak down its trunk, this is killed wood and it may not heal. Rot and bugs of various kinds can get into the tree and start working away at the tree's basic support.

Please be careful!

--Spruce

I had a 100 ft pine tree struck by lightening about ten years ago that left a split in the trunk down one side. It survived and continued to grow, but five years ago I could see into the trunk. since it was withing about ten feet of the house I had it removed.

I have a white oak in my back woods that was struck probably at least 50 years ago (We bought the lot in '63). It lost the main trunk but has a massive side trunk. If it were a specimen tree I would have it removed, but it makes an interesting feature in my woods.

Thank you all so much for your replies...

mountainman_bc
No, there are no obvious burns...I'm wondering now if I was mistaken, especially after reading sprucemans idea re: maybe it was wind damage during the storm.

spruceman
Maybe you are right re: Could it have been wind damage? I don't see a strip down to the ground, the tree was damaged during a windy lightening storm...

pineresin
I took your advice and if seems that it have leafed out OK this spring

rhizo_1 & spruceman:
I'll definitely watch it carefully for a long time, it is pretty far from the house...but you're right...it could be a hazard!

lucky_p:
I hope my tree will 'never looked back' too! Promising story

Thanks again all for the replies...I was so busy with winter sowing that I forgot to reply here!

Lightning struct ny huge white oak tree in May 2010 in several places on the trunk. It fried begonias planted around the tree for about 18 inches out--it looked like ashes totally. Also, a lot of bark was thrown from spots all over the trunk. Now it has a 10 to 12 ft, streak (where thw ligning struct that has turned very dark & is dripping syrup colord sap. There is another streak like this on the other side of the trunk, only not as large, dripping too. This tree is in a crowded neighborhood & could do major damage to 5 homes (depending on how it fell) so I am extremely concerned. I have been told it is dying. Would you agree?