Folsom neighborhood redwood tree ‘explodes’ from lightning strike in latest California storm
A storm in the Sacramento region sent shockwaves through a Folsom community Tuesday. Literally.
Around 4:30 p.m. in the Lexington Hills neighborhood on the city’s east side, lightning struck a redwood in the backyard of Lisa Shifflet’s home. The bolt sent debris across a five-house radius and power surges throughout several houses, short-circuiting appliances and garage doors.
No injuries were reported.
“I started getting a bunch of alerts on my phone and my watch saying that our house had lost power, my house alarm had lost power, and that our Wi-Fi was no longer connected,” Shifflet said. “I thought that was kind of strange.”
Shifflet said she was at work when the incident occurred, but several arborists have told her the same thing: the tree exploded.
“They said that the tree, all of the cells of the tree are full of water,” she said. “When the lightning bolt hits it, it immediately boils that water inside the tree, and then it just explodes.”
The tree, which previously stood at 80 to 85 feet tall, now stands at approximately 55 to 60 feet.
Shifflet said that, during the January storms, the tree would teeter in the wind, and she and her family would worry about it falling. She said they never even thought about lightning.
“My husband was coming home from the grocery store and let the fire trucks pulling out of the fire station pull in front of him (Tuesday),” she said. “He was behind them and realized that they were going to our house. A bunch of people had called and said that the tree had been struck. It also sent limbs and huge splinters of wood that are like 2 feet long everywhere.”
According to a letter from a city arborist to the Shifflet family, the top portion of the stem was blown out and the tree has begun to die. The city recommends the tree be removed as soon as possible to prevent property damage or personal injury caused by additional limb failures.
“We’re just making sure our children and our pets can’t go out there and get under it or be around it right now,” Shifflet said. “I’m really bummed because it was a beautiful, well-established tree, and it was the only shade for my yard.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2023 at 11:47 AM.