Texas recently experienced one of the worst winter storms of all time. This time, the interesting thing is that there are sounds like gun explosions in a storm in the middle of the night. But these sounds come from trees, not guns. Frozen trees are literally exploding.
Tree bursting is not a new phenomenon, but it is one not many people are familiar with. As temperatures drop, tree sap begins to freeze and expand in the branches of trees, putting great pressure on the internal structure. When this pressure reaches the breaking point, the branches of the tree, sometimes even the entire tree itself, burst and large branches fall to the ground. At extremely low temperatures, large trees can split vertically.
During last week’s storm, temperatures in Texas dropped well below freezing, power lines snapped. Falling trees destroyed roads and infrastructure. It was reported that 70,000 settlements were left without electricity on Thursday.
20282
