In recent days you have sent us many viral videos on social media showing trees that literally they explode from the cold. These clips, widespread in the United States due to the Arctic storm which paralyzed numerous states causing inconvenience and victims, are mostly generated with theartificial intelligence. However, there is a grain of scientific truth. When trees are at low temperatures they can be affected by the natural phenomenon of frost cracks or froast cracks in English, the formation of vertical cracks due to stress due to temperature fluctuations to which the plant is unable to adapt.
Some clips, like the ones in the video below, are done very well and the AI is becoming so “good” that distinguishing real from fake is a challenge. But precisely for this reason, the golden rule on social media today is only one: to be critics. If you see something absurd and no one explains why, it’s good to ask yourself two questions. Have you ever seen trees explode before today? It would be strange if they started exploding like fireworks right from the 2026as if they had downloaded a software update. Let’s understand what really happens to trees during harsh winters.
Frost cracks look like vertical openings of the bark that can extend deep into the wood of the tree and are found more often on the trunk than on the branches. It all depends on the temperature fluctuations that can occur during the winter months and by the fact that the plant does not have time to adapt to these changes.
In plants flows the lymph – the essential liquid for the transport of nutrients, water and organic substances – which, when temperatures drop drastically for example between a sunny day and night, can freeze. Since the lymph is composed largely ofwaterfallwhen frozen it expands, think of a bottle left in the freezer. The internal pressure pushes against the cortex until split woodcreating vertical cracks.
In addition to the expansion of water, water also contributes to this process contraction of wood, the outer (colder) part contracts faster than the inner (hotter) part, creating tension that “tears” the wood. The moment of the split can have a loud sound which may resemble the sound of an explosion or a gunshot. But the tree it does not explode in the strict sense of the term as the videos circulating on TikTok and Instagram show and it is not dangerous for people, the pieces of bark do not start flying in the air.
Usually it is not a problem even for the trees themselves which manage to survive but they could suffer infections caused by viruses or bacteria that enter from the crack in the bark.
During the bad weather and the snowfall that hit the United States, the tree-related risk may arise if there is one falling branches weighed down by snow and ice that could damage a home, vehicle or passers-by.
