Extreme Cold Warning: What You Need to Know about “Exploding” Trees in Illinois

There's no doubt about it; brutal and dangerous cold will be the reality for Northern Illinois and Wisconsin over the next several days, but exploding trees? That's a little extreme, right?!

Arctic Blast Hitting Illinois

Beginning at 3 a.m. on January 23, 2026 through noon on January 24, Central, North central, Northeast Illinois, and Southern Wisconsin, will be under an Extreme Cold Warning with high temperatures in the negatives and wind chills between 30 and 40 below zero. 

READ MORE: Frost Quake Warning for Illinois Residents

In all seriousness, this is deadly cold. This is the kind of cold that will frostbite exposed skin in less than 10 minutes. The kind of cold that can kill pets left outside for too long, and make trees explode?

Can Trees Explode in Extreme Cold?

Have you seen a post like this float across your social media feed lately?

We all know bad things happen when temps drop well below zero, but trees exploding? This is something I have never heard about before, and it seems a bit too extreme to be accurate, right?

Right.

According to an article from Morning AgClips, trees can experience "frost cracking" in extreme cold, which is far from the picture the term "exploding" paints in our minds.

Frost cracking happens when:

 the sap inside a tree freezes (and therefore expands) faster than the wood around it. This causes internal pressure to build up to the point where the surrounding wood can’t contain it anymore and cracks suddenly. This release of pressure often produces a loud cracking or popping sound that can be mistaken for an explosion.

The article also says certain tree types like maple, oak, sycamore, and many fruit trees are more susceptible to frost cracking, and that extremely hot temperature changes can cause the same effects too.

This video explains the whole 'exploding trees' reality better:

The moral of this story is, no, we don't have to worry about trees blowing up all over our yards the next few days, but it will be dangerously cold, so just stay inside!