Get one those Mjolnir toys (Thors hammer) and place it in the middle of the split. 

whenever i see things like this i wonder how on earth a person ever survives being struck by lightning. 

That's exactly what I was guessing. The bark was probably shot off with steam being the propellant.

I wonder if there's a scientific reason trees sit down the middle, like the water in the middle of the trunk vaporizes and expands.  

Wow, I've seen trees that were stuck before, but never like this.  Did the bark explode off?

The bark is all off because the sap boils, then the bark explodes off.

Neighbor's tree got struck by lightning a couple of days ago, completely debarked and split down the middle.