The Angel Moroni statue atop the Bountiful Utah Temple was replaced on June 1. The statue had sustained damage from a lightning strike on Sunday, May 22. Workers from Mountain National Heavy Haul removed the lightning rod and damaged statue using a hook and crane. The statue used to replace the damaged one was originally intended to be placed on the Meridian Idaho Temple, which is still under construction.
Today, 142 out of 150 operating temples in the Church have a statue of the Angel Moroni on a spire. The statues serve as both symbolic landmarks and lightning rods, which attract lightning strikes away from other parts of the temple.
“The angel Moroni statues get hit by lightning all the time,” Tyler Wilson, director of special projects at Okland Construction, told the Deseret News seven years ago when the statue on top of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple had to be replaced because of a lightning strike.
“There’s a misunderstanding that such strikes are rare, but that’s not the case at all,” Wilson said.
