Lightning hits Oquirrh Mountain Temple

Mother Nature added another sight to see at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, Saturday.

As weekend rain and lighting storms moved across the Salt Lake Valley, one strike took a path through the Angel Moroni's golden horn en route to the ground. Steve Allison, a resident of South Jordan who lives near the temple said lightning was dropping in the area Saturday and Sunday it was obvious lightning had struck the temple's unofficial lightning rod.

"(The Angel) is the only thing up there, Daybreak is pretty flat," Allison said. "Saturday afternoon we were getting big strikes, one shook the house and knocked the power out."

Allison said he first heard the temple had been struck when a friend walked into choir practice with a pair of binoculars hanging from his neck. On Sunday streams of passersby stopped to view the damage and take pictures.

LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said Monday the lightning strike discolored the Angel Moroni statue, but no other damage was reported.

"A work crew will re-gild the statue as soon as possible" he said in a prepared statement.

— Clayton Norlen