I completely agree with all you said.

We live on the top of a ridge that tends to get smacked with lightning quite a bit. Last year a bolt hit an oak tree and blew off a piece of timber that was the size of a 2"x6"x16'. It landed at least 60 feet from the tree. A smaller piece about 3ft long was stuck like a spear deep in the ground about 40ft from the tree. There wasn't a bit of bark left on the pieces that were blown off and it felt like kiln dried wood when I picked it up the next morning.

This tree is about 300ft from the top of the ridge and 30ft below it, and something like 60-70 ft below the tallest tree on the top of the ridge and there are several trees much closer to it that stand higher.

I was driving North up towards Rockford IL once and watched lightning stream up from the ground and branch off thousands of feet up into the storm clouds about 40 miles ahead of me. Absolutely amazing!

Bill

A Story About Lightning