Comments about ‘Lightning hits Oquirrh Mountain Temple’

"LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said Sunday he was not able to confirm whether the temple had been struck."

Spontaneous combustion?

and Moroni did his. I hear it is common for them to get struck, but just not common for it to blacken them that much.

I was there earlier that day (with the weaker storm) and I just wanted to thank those that were there. I had a very enjoyable time there. Thank you.

If you live close by you can go look for yourself. (I doubt Scott was neither confirming or denying the incident. He was probably in Church at the time!)

I take it as a wake up call, that I need to be in the temple on a regular basis to be protected from the 'storms' of the world. I'm excited to be a part of this temple district!

gold is a conducter, looks like black spray paint?

Gold??? That's not gold. It is spray painted fiberglass.

So it was "Mother Nature" that struck Moroni with lightning rather than God this time?

Agreed completely. Neither are a "sign from God." As Sigmund Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

my drill rig was hit by lightning and it did'nt do anything like that but i got shocked. if it is fiberglass it would have took a big chunk out of old moroni you would think. maybe we'll never know oooooh!!! scary anint it ooooooh.....

Most Angel Moroni statues are made of fiberglass, contain a lightning rod, and covered in gold leaf. They tried gold paint once, but it didn't have the same luster. You can see the rod protruding from Moroni's head in some of these photos.
It will be interesting to see what the Church does about this. It's likely that this won't be the last time the temple is struck due to its location. Will they put up scaffolding to re-leaf the statue every time?

All you anti-Mormon fans should be having a ball. Go to it folks.

I was sitting on my porch and saw the bolt that hit the angel Moroni statue. It was one heck of a storm that went through the area, bolts hitting all around. That tower with the statue is going to be hit many more times, as it's the highest point out there tied to ground. I would like to know what can be done to prevent the actual statue from being damaged every time a storm like that comes through. I can only assume that the gold leafing was in contact with the rod, making it a more desirable path for the electrical conductivity... an error in the manufacturing and design.

No damage was done to the temple. Seems to be that the temple was protected by Angel Moroni.

If the lightning rod were well grounded, the electricity would have gone straight down a copper cable into the earth. The fact that it didn't is pretty bad for the contractor and inspector. Since the steeple is made of steel, and it's the highest structure for miles, it's going to get a LOT of lightning.


When the rod is correctly connected, the electricity will do as it must. When it's not, it will also do as it must. It doesn't have a choice. The laws of lightning and buildings were discovered 250 years ago by Ben Franklin. From the picture, it looks like the bolt forked when it got to the statue and went through the head and the trumpet, and then down to ground.

I imagine the reason the gold changed color is because the gold leaf is so thin. The charge had to spread to the capacity of the conductor, and then also heated it. That might or might not melt the gold, but gold leaf is almost as thin as a single layer of molecules. The fiberglass resin underneath burned and the smoke damage to the leaf is what you see.

run a copper wire from the Angel to ground and no more lightening problems.

I wonder if God was sending a message?

Are you looking for signs? Don't. This was lightening connecting to a metal source. It happens. The damage will be repaired, and this type of thing may happen again in the future. I'm glad the temple didn't catch on fire. The rod did its job.

Silly to say it is anything than what it is, a random act of nature. Our Moroni here on the Toronto Temple was also hit a year or two ago, it was taken down. repaired and put back. They get hit all the time just as any other high point in a storm will, the CN Tower gets hit all the time.

I love to read the comments...I guess many people like to muddy the waters...
Really, people, this is exactly what these "guys" were designed for...they are GIANT LIGHTNING RODS...any time you stick something that high up, it had better be grounded or you destroy your building...
Now THAT would have caused a stir...
"Mormon temple destroyed because they didn't put in a lightning rod" would have made a better headline, well, at least for some people reading this...

Shoot, my husband and I drove by there Saturday night - wrong time to go past there. Not that I think it's cool Moroni got it, but that would have been cool to see.