Electro-cacti-cution

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

Im hiking a trail in T-bird park yesterday and something doesnt feel right, something is missing. A mighty saguaro, the sentinal of the desert, no longer stands guard. ( Yes, I know where every cactus is. )

I hike off trail to where the cactus should be, and realize that it took one for the team. Still emitting an odd odor that is beyond explanation, it lies half on the ground, its guts all over the place from an explosive lightning strike.

This is my first time seeing a recent stike resulting in the falling of one of the mighty ones. Just happened to have my camera with me, although the pics didnt really come out all that great.

Electro-cacti-cution

HUM469 · Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 228 Location: Peoria, AZ

That really is too bad. I know all about the smell they make when baked like that though.

Behind my old house, it took three strikes inside of two years to kill off an old fanned Saguaro. By that I mean the rare genetically mutated ones where the top is shaped like a fan. The first shot blew off the top, but left no more marks. Then next week another monsoon storm had put a big black gash all the way down it's 40 foot height. The very next year, the monsoon only got to hit it once, and that time it blew completely to pieces, splaying it's ribs out in a perfect spoked wheel shape, and throwing meat clear against the side of my house more than 100 feet away. One of the arms even had to be fished out of my pool. There really is no describing that smell though, is there?
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cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

I suppose if that cactus wasnt there, the lightning could have went for your house huh? Assuming your house was the next tallest object.

HUM469 · Joined: 30 Jun 2004 Posts: 228 Location: Peoria, AZ

Maybe, but I doubt it. It's not really the tallest structure that always gets hit, just the most conductive. There was a tree about halfway between my house and the saguaro that was nearly twice the height and it never got hit. I always said I should lay a mining claim right under that cactus.. must have been a pretty strong ore vein there....
_________________
-Dylan Anderson
(602) 628-4327
Consultant
Real Estate Executive to AZ
Special Projects Manager, AZCDE.com

Nighthiker · Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 1714

Check the area around the saguaro and look for fused sand (glassy looking), result of a stike. They are also called fulgarites and some of them are pretty cool looking.

cakewalk · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 512

There was no evidence of a ground strike near my cactus. I actually looked for fulgarites.
Would be pretty cool to find a strike in soft deep sand, could score a major fulgarite trophy.

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas

Pretty cool that you noticed the missing patriarch in the first place.
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LongStoryShort · Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 402 Location: Doha, Qatar

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kurthzone · Posted: 8/18/2006, 12:11 pm Post subject:

evenstar · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 5548 Location: SCW by way of CA

IGO · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 4144 Location: Las Vegas