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,

It is indeed possible for trees to split apart in extreme conditions and to do so quite noisily, she said, typically when there’s a big swing in temperatures. In these instances, sap rapidly freezes when the mercury plummets and the tree expands, its trunk or limbs busting open like the buttons on a too-tight shirt after Thanksgiving dinner.