"It was the middle one!"
Posted on 01/22/2026 2:39:41 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
A tree-mendous freeze.
Forecasters are warning that expected subzero temperatures could cause trees to explode as a brutal cold snap is expected to wallop most of the country in the coming days.
Trees may split and burst across the Midwest and Northern Plains Friday and Saturday as a bitter Arctic blast from Canada sends temperatures plunging to roughly 20 degrees below zero, according to social media meteorologist Max Velocity.
“EXPLODING TREES are possible in the Midwest and Northern Plains on Friday and Saturday, as temperatures are forecasted to fall 20 degrees BELOW zero!” the YouTuber, who has about 1.55 million subscribers, said in an X post Tuesday night.
Rebecca Ann, another social media weather buff, noted that although rare, the environmental phenomenon can threaten healthy and weakened trees in extremely frigid conditions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Great name for a band.
Screaming Trees, came pretty close.
Gore warned you about Global Warming and you didn’t believe him.
In freezing temperatures, trees don’t truly “explode,” but extreme cold can cause frost cracking, a phenomenon where water in the tree’s sap freezes, expands rapidly, and puts immense pressure on the wood, leading to sudden, loud splits or bursts of bark, often sounding like gunshots or explosions, especially in trees like maple, birch, and ash. This happens when the internal water freezes and expands, forcing cracks in the trunk or branches, often after rapid temperature drop.
I know of (first hand experience) trees literally exploding, apart in an intense forest fire (as the heated water inside creates steam and pressure so rapidly that parts of the tree literally “blow off”). I have even seen trees explode in flames in such intense heat. But I had never heard of this phenomena of trees bursting apart in freezing conditions.
I’m sure it happens to a variety of species. Here in CA, the Valley Oak is a glorious tree. They can live 1,000 years and get maybe 70 feet tall and wide. It’s rare, but under just the right conditions in high summer temperatures they can also explode. Never seen it happen but I’ve seen trees to which it happened
We have the sort of opposite when the heat hits California. If we have sustained days of 110 or above (rare where I am), tree start dropping their branches.
I remember a few years ago we had such a heat wave with days of sustained 110 heat - there were large branches all over the sidewalks and roadways. I'd never seen anything like it before.
The government said it was due to man made "global warming climate change." - even though tree rings show dought and heat are a constant in California going back 1,000 years or more.
>> my grandpa told me he had seen trees pop open due to the cold here in Louisiana
You mean they were already suffering from the effects of “climate change” back then??!?
Your forest is an illustration of natural selection. The ones that would explode did so already.
Exploding trees are real, I remember them from my childhood around StLouis. But, once a forest is cleared of the ....”weak” ones nothing will happen for years until new trees grow up — and you get another cold snap.
In NJ large old trees line major highways with huge branches extending over the right lanes. The state rarelt trims them. Can just imagine these heavy branches falling on unsuspecting cars. Stay in the left lanes.
As I recall, there is also an extreme weather condition known as a Chinook in which a sudden warm wind causes cold trees to crack open, sometimes with a sharp report.
Oh yeah. Forgot about the Sreaming Trees.
“The record for the lowest temperature in Minden, Louisiana, was set on February 13, 1899, when the temperature dropped to -16 degrees Fahrenheit. This is also the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state of Louisiana.”
Search Assist
That is what mule farts gets you.
It happens in Georgia also. Tree limbs explode. It sounds like gunshots.
That reference nearly lost me.
Well played, sir.
I am calling BS and gaslighting and freamongering.
I have never seen a tree split and burst because of the cold 20 to 60 below zero..
I looked it up. The trees do not explode, as in an explosive charge. Water within the trees rapidly expands in a cold snap and will split the tree.
This happens to trees that are not native to a cold area.
I’ve spent many hours each year in the forest and never have I seen a tree that was split for anything other than a lightning strike. Our trees are native to the area for centuries.
The people writing the thread’s story are being overly dramatic.
I’ll just bark at them while I’m running rings around them. 😉
Try not to be a sap and branch out.
I will deciduously consider what you are saying...
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