HOUSTON — The Texas A&M Forest Service is telling residents to stay alert for a potentially dangerous winter weather phenomenon: “exploding” trees.
In a social media post, the agency explained that while trees don’t actually explode, freezing conditions can cause dramatic frost cracks that create loud popping or cracking sounds sometimes described as explosions.
The phenomenon occurs when temperatures drop suddenly, causing water inside trees to expand and contract faster than the bark can accommodate. This pressure causes the outer layer of the tree to split, with branches sometimes breaking under the weight of accumulated ice…