Has anyone ever heard of "frost cracking"?

[Ohiogal]

Trees that freeze and thaw make a sound that mimics a gun shot or like someone kicking down your door. This is happening in my area, apparently.

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According to Arbor Experts of Dayton, Ohio, when temperatures drop to below freezing like they did early Wednesday when the mercury fell to near zero, a natural occurrence that is known as “frost cracking” can take place.

Tree bark, warmed by the afternoon sun, begins to shrink when the temperatures drop after dark. The inner wood, however, takes longer to adjust to the temperature change. The bark freezes and contracts, causing the bark and the wood to split, sometimes making a loud sound that is many times compared to a rifle shot.

https://www.wfmj.com/story/43363308/freezing-trees-blamed-for-gunshot-sounds-in-hubbard-liberty

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Living in northern MN, I hear it a lot.

[Wellstone ruled]

15. Especially Elm,

Willow and Box Elder. The sound is like a Lightning Strike. We have a similar thing happening here in the Desert. Ornamental Plums bark will explode when temps hit the middle hundred teens.

[Throck]

2. Lots here in W PA.

[gibraltar72]

3. Fairly common in Michigan.

[NutmegYankee]

4. It happens.

Most of my trees have thick bark and don't have this issue, but I've heard it before.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Yes, my old house in central Maryland experienced that during "Snowmagedon" some years ago.

We had a line of cedar trees on our property line. I was shoveling 4 feet of snow (yes, 4 feet, in Maryland) when I heard that shotgun sound. The first of three cedar trees split where the truck forked, about 8 feet up. The same fate befell two more trees in that same line.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Yup although if it is that cold outside

I sure as hell am not out there long enough to listen for it or hear it.

I have seen the damage that bark splitting does to the trees however and it's pretty sad. This is often when trees like the beautiful but decidedly short-lived Bradford pear trees. "explode" thanks to their poor branch angles and the splitting that happens with the temp changes, snow loads on the branches, and wind.

[Peacetrain]

7. heard that term for the first time yesterday

I have experienced it.. but did not have a name for it.. like the derecho we had last summer.. we used to call it straight winds but now I have a new term for it..

[sinkingfeeling]

8. In the 2009 ice storm, that hit NW Arkansas, it sounded like a

WWII battle. I lost over 100 big trees and cleanup was over $12K. So many big limbs came down, I couldn't open my back door.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. I've heard of frost heaving, the ground in particular. Frost cracking is a new one on me...

That's the sound of what my outside wood steps makes, when I go up or down them, when it's cold. So now I know what this is called!

[luvs2sing]

10. I've heard it here in Columbus..

but it was a long time ago.

[Talitha]

11. Pretty common here in northern Wisconsin.

Not only the trees but the attached deck too, after a cold but sunny day. Just happens to the south deck, not the east deck. The latter probably has time to slow-cool before nightfall. And you can feel the 'smack' throughout the whole house, like someone hit the deck with a baseball bat.

[OregonBlue]

12. We had a huge ice storm in the Seattle area about 20 years ago and most of the

evergreens on our property were literally blown apart. The cracking went on for days. Woke us up at night. It's so wet there that the water penetrated the sand then the temperature dropped. It was a major mess and a huge cleanup afterward. First time I ever heard it and I thought we were under siege.

[Bev54]

13. Very common in cold areas like we have in Canada

wait until it does it on your roof in the middle of the night and wakes you out of a deep sleep.

[xmas74]

14. It's pretty common in rural Missouri

People talk about it all the time on local pages.