With brutal winter conditions on the horizon, a meteorologist made headlines for issuing an ‘exploding tree’ advisory in parts of the Midwestern United States. “EXPLODING TREES are possible in the Midwest and Northern Plains on Friday and Saturday, as temperatures are forecasted to fall 20 degrees BELOW zero!” meteorologist Max Velocity said. EXPLODING TREES are possible in the Midwest and Northern Plains on Friday and Saturday, as temperatures are forecasted to fall 20 degrees BELOW zero! pic.twitter.com/nqnoqsbHNU — Max Velocity (@MaxVelocityWX) January 21, 2026 Patch explained further: Also known as “frost cracking,” the term does not mean trees literally explode, but rather that extreme cold can cause trees to crack or split abruptly. The phenomenon occurs when sap inside a tree freezes and expands, or when wood contracts rapidly in very dry, frigid air. The sudden stress release can sound like a gunshot or small explosion. The risk increases during severe cold snaps like the one forecast for Minnesota, where overnight temperatures are expected to fall near or below 20 degrees below zero, with wind chills approaching 40 to 45 below in some areas. While rare, tree cracking is most often reported overnight or in the early morning during the coldest part of an Arctic outbreak. The primary hazard comes from falling limbs rather than the cracking itself. Stay safe out there this Friday and Saturday in Wisconsin. Wind chills expected as low as -50 degrees. Hopefully this will keep the protestors off the streets of Minneapolis for a while. Also, watch out for exploding trees too! pic.twitter.com/2arq45XiFp — Brady Penfield (@brady_penfield) January 21, 2026 Residents are advised to avoid parking cars beneath large trees and remain indoors during the coldest stretches of the extreme weather. There were mixed reactions to the ‘exploding tree’ alert, with some people familiar with the phenomenon and others utterly clueless. I thought this was a joke, but apparently we need to be concerned with exploding trees & frost quake booms in Minnesota rn pic.twitter.com/jtmK7KGxGw — Laura Kuschel (@LaKusch) January 21, 2026 This is a real thing. I moved from Fires, Traffic and earthquakes to exploding trees. https://t.co/gE9G3y70gD — Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) January 21, 2026 Can’t say I had exploding trees on my 2026 bingo card https://t.co/SNHm3tvLCm — greg (@greg16676935420) January 21, 2026 Trees can explode during extreme cold due to sap expansion when it freezes.Oak, maple, and fruit trees with high moisture are most vulnerable to exploding.Extreme cold can also cause “cryoseismic booms” or “frost quakes” due to ground expansion. pic.twitter.com/Of8pmT2yHM — Pure Memeigan (@kalamazoo_memes) January 21, 2026 The U.S. Sun has more: Weather experts have warned about the incoming cold snap, set to hit much of America in the coming days. A brutal snowstorm is set to cause chaos with “unrelenting” freezing temperatures incoming. Multiple blasts of snow, ice and winds are set to batter the US that experts have warned could “take lives.” Americans are being warned to brace themselves for a new storm that could coat roads, trees and power lines with ice across a wide expanse of the south. “The storm arriving late this week and into the weekend is shaping up to be a widespread potentially catastrophic event from Texas to the Carolinas,” warned Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “I don’t know how people are going to deal with it,” he said. Weather experts say they fear the incoming onslaught of freezing temperatures could even weigh down trees and affect power lines – triggering widespread outages across homes and businesses. “Great swathes” of heavy snow, sleet and rain are expected to begin on Friday in much of the midsection of America. From there the storm is expected to make its way toward the East Coast throughout the weekend, according to The National Weather Service.