I was sitting in my car in a parking lot in Port Charlotte during a severe thunderstorm the other day when a bolt of lightning hit a royal palm planted along the perimeter.<\/p>\n
The explosive hit was loud and made me jump as I was about 50 feet away from the strike.<\/p>\n
Part of the palm crown shaft blew out and scattered the ground with debris. Although still erect and mostly in one piece, the palm was doomed.<\/p>\n
I saw it several days later sticking out like a sore, dead thumb amongst the remaining specimens.<\/p>\n
We have so many thunderstorms that lightning is a true fact of life \u2014 and death \u2014 with palms.<\/p>\n
With at least 3,500 lightning strikes on average per day here in Florida, it is not unusual to see a good number of palms struck during each typical rainy season.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers is actually the No. 1 lightning strike city in Florida \u2014 too close for comfort for residents of Charlotte County!<\/p>\n
Top on the list for lightning strikes are some of the tallest palms including royal palms, coconut palms and Washington palms.<\/p>\n
Shorter palms can also be on the hit list as well.<\/p>\n
If you were not present when the lightning strike occurred, you may be startled to see the palm canopy suddenly collapsed. Decline is fairly quick with the palm fronds still looking green, but with the older fronds folded down like a closed umbrella \u2014 only the top spear leaves remain upright.<\/p>\n
If one is present, you may also notice a shattered crown shaft.<\/p>\n
Within a couple of weeks, the fronds will turn brown as they decline further.<\/p>\n
Other indicators of a lightning strike include bleeding, long gashes and shot holes on the trunk and disturbed soil at the base of the palm.<\/p>\n
Other plants and palms nearby may also have been indirectly hit. Collateral damage to surrounding palms may take months to finally succumb.<\/p>\n
Palms cannot hide and take cover when a thunderstorm rolls in, so how can you protect them from lightning? Florida Certified Arborists can install lightning protection systems that lead the electrical charge of a strike safely to the ground. These systems can be expensive and may be best reserved for high-value showpiece palm specimens.<\/p>\n
As Hurricane Ian hit, I had a sable palm struck by lightning so intense that it blew the whole crown clean off of the trunk \u2014 I truly understand and respect this force of nature. As the remaining trunk was not a hazard, I actually left it as a snag to provide potential habitat for cavity-nesting birds.<\/p>\n
While lightning strikes on tall objects like palms can happen on a hit-or-miss basis, remember that the end result is a dead palm.<\/p>\n
Palms can be replaced and regrown in time, so there still can be a happy ending to this tale of woe.<\/p>\n