About 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Robbie Criss, was startled awake by a crack of lighting outside her bedroom window. This sycamore tree in her backyard was struck by lighting, blowing all the bark off the tree.

Robbie Criss heard a loud crash at 5 a.m. Tuesday at her Douglas County home.

She feared lightning had struck the house but couldn’t find any damage. Later that morning, her son told her to join him in the back yard to look at her favorite sycamore tree.

“There it was, and it was stripped clean of all the bark,” said Criss, 73, who has lived east of Lawrence Municipal Airport for 17 years.

The early morning storms blew away all the bark from the tree Criss adores.

“You can see the crack all the way down where it comes down that tree. You can take your hand, and it’s so smooth,” she said.

Criss’ tree wasn’t the only one that lightning targeted Tuesday.

At Eighth and Louisiana streets, Mike Wildgen, former Lawrence city manager, noticed strips of missing bark and a long split in a large city-owned pin oak tree near his home.

“This was a very nice tree, so I would hate to lose it,” Wildgen said.

Mark Graves, a senior forester with the city, said a bolt directly struck the decades-old tree. A city crew still might be able to salvage it.

“You don’t really know how bad it is until we’re a few weeks down the road,” Graves said.

The storms moved through the area Tuesday and dropped 1.65 inches of rain in 24 hours, said 6News Chief Meteorologist Matt Elwell. Only light to moderate rain is in store for today,Wednesday he said.

The rain that fell Tuesday kept the area well ahead of its annual rainfall average. As of Tuesday afternoon Elwell said 29.21 inches have fallen this year, about 6 inches ahead of the annual average. For July, the city has received 7.33 inches of rain — about 3.7 inches above the average amount.