Reader James Hohensee sent in a couple of photos this morning of the aftermath of an oak tree losing one of its big lower limbs last night.
“At about 10:15 pm last night neighbors heard a large thud and felt their houses shake,” Hohensee wrote us. “Checking outside, they found that a large oak tree had split and landed on the house at 7317 Falmouth. The house has been vacant for several years, so no one was inside the house.”
Here’s another look:
With the scorching hot dog days of summer arriving earlier than usual this year, northeast Johnson County’s mature stock of stately oak trees may be becoming more susceptible to losing limbs. The phenomenon, known as “summer limb drop,” was prevalent during the prolonged drought and heat wave that hung over the area in the summer of 2012. Arborists think the issue may be the result of trees drawing up large amounts of water into their branches to combat excessive heat, which increases the branch weight and can exacerbate small cracks or defects in the wood. Check out this post for an overview of the phenomenon.
