Lightning hits tree, causes damage to home in South Bay

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Thursday night a thunder and lightning storm moved through the Bay Area. It came in from the south and provided a big show in Santa Cruz County.

Lightning could be seen in many parts of the Bay Area from Morgan Hill to San Jose and Dublin to Oakland.

In San Jose residents on West Taylor and Elm Street say the thunder and lightning struck at the exact same time, indicating the lightning was right overhead. One of the tallest redwood trees in the neighborhood was struck by lightning and the top of it exploded into hundreds of pieces.

PHOTOS: Lightning strikes across the Bay Area

Residents say the tree was taller than 95 feet. It happened around 9:30 p.m. Thursday. Neighbors say it was a quick storm with little rain that blew though near Mineta San Jose International Airport.

The strike knocked out the power to several homes in the area and there are a lot of splinters of redwood tree scattered around the area.

"It sounded like a bomb went off," said witness Jim Currier. "Seeing pictures on TV of what lightning can do and... I mean, it's disintegrated. That was a big tree before. It's basically vaporized."

"The first thing we noticed was the tree limbs had exploded, so the house over here was lit up, so we were trying to figure out what was going on. Was it an explosion or lightning or whatever the case may be?" said witness Michael Ruiz.

Other than a lot of frayed nerves, there were no physical injuries.

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Some of the video provided was from MorganHillWebcam.com.