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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_tree
I… did not know about this previously
Didn’t expect such damage
I naively thought it was some exploding in beauty kind of thing
Well that one was blown up by lightning so…
Looked too much like Australia for cold to be an issue
It’s 100% Australia. Can tell by the
sky and eucalyptspixels.Mmmmm yes… it’s quite clear that the pixels are all upside down
Looks like that scene from Jurassic Park. Now that is one big pile of tree
Jurassic Bark (NOT Futurama)
Ok, I live in Alberta, Canada. I grew up in the woods of Northern Alberta. We can get week long bouts of -40°C/F and I have NEVER seen or heard of exploding trees in the area. Are American trees just weak, or is this fake?
I’m going to guess it has to do with how quickly the temperature change occurs, or other environmental factors prior to the freeze. It seems to be a somewhat rare occurrence, even in places where it gets very cold
In Alberta a chinook can make the temp go from -20 to 20 in a matter of hours, the same backwards.
Huh TIL
The maximum daily temperature anomaly associated with the wind ranges from +13°C in the northwest to +25°C in the southeast. The temperature rise at the onset of the event is abrupt and steep; an increase of 27°C in 2 minutes has been observed.
They also create clippers on their way to the states, hence the term Alberta Clipper.
The chinook, which in part originates the Alberta clipper, usually brings relatively warm weather (often approaching 10 °C (50 °F) in the depths of winter) to southern Alberta itself, and the term is therefore not used in Alberta.
We uhh…. Just had a chinook last week, sorry.
Does wind chill make water freeze faster?
The helicopter?
With enough flamethrowers, or an atom bomb, I’m sure the same could be attained.
Trees further south have different conditions.
When we get cold snaps before 15f in the mid Atlantic tree sap that doesn’t usually freeze will freeze and limbs will pop. I’ve never seen a tree explode but I’ve definitely heard trees blowing limb and bits of themselves in the woods. Wind exacerbates the phenomenon
It was raining here two weeks ago. Temperatures were in the 20-30s earlier this week. It’s being far below freezing AND recent warm weather that’s the danger.
It isn’t common, and explode is an exaggeration for what I have seen - just cracked bark (though the crack was probably abrupt and loud). Montana gets some every now and again, so I am guessing at least some parts of Alberta do too. Nobody has made a big deal about it in the past outside of folks interested in trees. This is some weird media hype.
The use of the word “explode” is misleading. It’s definitely misinformation.
Here’s an arborist talking about it, but basically:
Trees move sap and other liquids up and down their trunk from the soil underneath regularly. For trees like maples, this is where maple syrup comes from, except you have to collect a lot of sap and reduce it down to syrup.
The arborist claims that these liquids present in the tree when the temperature swings faster than the tree can respond expand due to freezing, which buckles tree trunks causing the outer bark to crack open and separate. The cracks can be from the ground up, or they can look like gashes in the side of the tree. There’s moisture in the soil too, which can shift tree roots and cause similar cracking.
People say “explode” because there’s usually a popping sound when this happens.
In other contexts, people call this frost upheave. Engineers know about this phenomenon, and try to bury equipment like pipes and cable and conduit below the frost line so frost upheave doesn’t crack and break that stuff. With trees, this frost upheave just takes place inside the trees themselves.
Ok, that makes sense. I figured that, if anything, it would be frost weathering. That’s not an “explosion” in my mind though. Perhaps when a crack forms a lot of the tension in the wood is released and it can cause a sudden jolt or shift? If all the snow and frost on a tree suddenly jumped off after a loud crack I could see someone calling that an explosion. Definitely a lot of misleading terms and info kicking around. Thanks!
America. I shouldn’t need to tell you that trees exploding is a sign we’re not on the right path
If it takes trees exploding and not … everything else that tips you off, you’re either a fool or not paying attention, or both.
Idk why the left side of ND is excluded, it’s -36 in Williston today.
The trees have probably already exploded. It’s how they knew to warn those east of them.
The danger of most things that explode, goes away once they explode.
Depends how big they explode
Beyond a certain point, there are explosions that only really start being a problem at the point of explosion
It’s probably more about large variances in temperature over a shorter period. If it’s already -36 today and been similarly cold recently then the trees are already frozen. There isn’t a risk from internal liquid water freezing and expanding.
Sometimes I think how Minnesota is ranked the least stressed state
Other times I just think how
Maybe for the same reason that the Nordic countries are ranked as the happiest
Beer and cheese
Minnesota was super chill when I was there a couple years ago.
In Minnesota, they call the state “Minipop”
Source: I make shit up
That’s a hell of a blast radius.
Cue a bunch of AI vids.
ICE agents getting an interesting mix of Vietnam and Iraq.
And well, ice.
Wood
Boom
We’d like to take moment to announce
Boom
ALL OUR TREES KEEP BLO-Boom
You ever see The Boys? Season 2, Episode 7, "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker?
Like that. But trees.
When I was a kid I read Brian’s Winter, part of the Hatchet series. He was scared by explosions while alone in the winter woods and found out in the end that they were exploding trees. Never forgot about that concept, but I never bothered to look up how big a tree can be and explode.
forecasted
\sigh
Doed you not like this?
Exploding ice risk
Don’t worry. They don’t actually explode.
I always worry about the animals when we get these crazy cold times. How many die. It’s sad to think about.
Love myself some Max
