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Someone read “Wind Through the Keyhole” and thinks a Starkblast is real.
-20F is -28C. I remember it hit -28C one time when I was a kid. I was walking around a forest and no trees exploded.
It’s not a common thing. And they don’t “explode” as much as shatter. It does require enough sap to be up in the tree trunks too. And our trees are too smart to let that happen for the most part. But it can and does happen sometimes to thin spindly young trees.
It’s been pretty cold up here in far northern Minnesota since last Wednesday. With morning temps at -25F, -30F, -30F and -35F this morning. The high yesterday was -15F and a high of -5F today. It’s not the very low temps that bother anyone up here, it’s the windchill that will kill you. Yesterday, the wind chills were running -35F to -60F. Which can cause frostbite to exposed skin in 5 minutes or less and possibly kill you very quickly.
On the upside, at these temps large amounts of snowfall are almost impossible. So I won’t need to start a tractor and plow the mile and a half to the nearest plowed road.
-20°F is -29°C
(A handy thing to remember is that -40°F is -40°C)
F or C?
20° is close to the temperature where it doesn’t matter
Ignorant non-American here. Why are the trees east and west safe?
I’m guessing trees north are used to the cold, so won’t explode, and south isn’t getting cold enough to explode. But what about east and west? (I already know the bare minimum of the US, but that central north region I know even less)
The United States is very big. If you’re from a smaller country (particularly if it’s smaller east-to-west), it can be a little bit hard to comprehend how different the weather can be from one part of the country to another. While the weather does typically travel from West to East, it can change significantly along the way, and it usually takes several days to get from one coast to the other.
The highlighted area on the map is a massive region, wider than France and Germany put together (though much less populated). In fact, it’s quite rare for even this much of the country to have the same weather pattern. The simplest answer to why trees to the east and west are safe is that it’s not as cold there.
There are some other factors, too: just past the Western edge of the highlighted region are the Rocky Mountains, which significantly change weather patterns. The highlighted region consists of remarkably flat land (leveled by glacial action), meaning that there’s not much to break the wind as it sucks away the heat from the trees. To the East if this highlighted region are the Great Lakes, which also change weather patterns.
But the biggest answer is, it’s just not as cold there. Cleveland, OH (at a similar latitude, but further to the East) is going to be almost 20°F warmer than this (which is still bone-chilling, but not tree-exploding), and Boise, ID (similar latitude but to the West) is going to be almost 40°F warmer (practically tropical! /s).
It’s also worth noting, if you’re not familiar with the US map, that the city of Minneapolis (where the anti-ICE protests are happening right now) is right about where the bottom of the “R” in “TREE” is on this map.
Total guess, but: Lake effect probably prevents huge temperature swings further east (the great lakes are GIGANTIC sinks of energy), and there are mountains to the west, I believe. The problem is the flat area pictured.
Also, the shape of the polar vortex wind mass isn’t uniform, so it likely dips further south in that region than others (in part due to the barriers described above)
Michigan can stay 30 degrees warmer in these polar snaps, just from the lakes warming the air, also creating lake effect snow. Not so much the upper penninsula but the lower.
Just the other day, 36 below in wi, only 6 below in mi.
I always worry about the animals when we get these crazy cold times. How many die. It’s sad to think about.
For native animals? Probably not that many, as they are adapted to the fact that it gets very cold.
Stray cats and dogs? Probably quite a few.
At these temperatures, it’s best to keep your ass and your pet’s asses inside and pray the furnace don’t quit.
The trees are also adapted to the cold. And they’re exploding lol
I don’t know if the polar vortex would go that far south so commonly in the past though. Climate change has made it wobble like crazy I’m recent years. It’s why we end up with warmer days in Finland now with no snow when it moves that way.
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.
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?
The trees don’t “explode” but young spindly trees can shatter if the conditions are just right, (and they are not right now). It’s very rare to have happen.
Source: I live in northern Minnesota. And I live closer to Winnipeg than the Twin cities.
I’d guess it’s the species that grow there. If they regularly see -40C they’d have to have evolved to cope with it.
t could also be part of how they grow - i dunno maybe narrower / more flexible rings, better insulation, or better ways to store sap in winter conditions.
I assume this is in an area where such a temperature is very rare.
Most trees do have some radial cracks in them though - probably just some very rare cases those cracks get big enough for the tree to fall or split visibly on the outside and someone calls it an “explosion” for dramatic effect.
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.
I have been in extreme cold and not heard of this either. When it gets below 0 f, they make noises, like cracking, but just noise.
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
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.
I feel so uneducated on weather lol. I had no idea what a Chinook or Clipper were before now.
Does wind chill make water freeze faster?
I think so. Wind chill is a roundabout way of comparing the capacity for heat extraction of moving air vs stagnant air.
The ones that would explode did a loooong time ago.
The helicopter?
With enough flamethrowers, or an atom bomb, I’m sure the same could be attained.
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.
Love myself some Max
He’s probably the best weather person out there. I love his hurricane live streams.
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
0% Australia. Can tell by how the picture isn’t upside down.
Turn your phone the right way up
Doesn’t even know that they need to turn their phones to see Australian pictures smh.
It’s 100% Australia. Can tell by the
sky and eucalyptspixels.Mmmmm yes… it’s quite clear that the pixels are all upside down
Jurassic Bark (NOT Futurama)
Looks like that scene from Jurassic Park. Now that is one big pile of tree
Sometimes I think how Minnesota is ranked the least stressed state
Other times I just think how
Beer and cheese
Maybe for the same reason that the Nordic countries are ranked as the happiest
Minnesota was super chill when I was there a couple years ago.
Looks like it’s going to be super chill this weekend, too. Extra super chill, even.
In Minnesota, they call the state “Minipop”
Source: I make shit up
That’s a hell of a blast radius.
Exploding ice risk
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.
This is exactly what came to mind for me as well! My second grade teacher read this and Hatchet to us. I remember him trying to figure out if it was from stray bullets from a hunter’s gun or what was going on.
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
Are you suggesting that these trees are likely to be fissile?
We just can’t rule it out
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.
