On a viral post on X-formerly-Twitter, Schuster — who holds a meteorology degree and goes by “Max Velocity” on social media — declared an area of “exploding tree risk” across the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and northern Michigan.

Exploding trees. It doesn't quite happen the way it’s portrayed on social media.

More than £11,600 is donated to a joint appeal to replace the trees lost.

Native trees, especially oaks and birch, are important to the reproductive success of insectivorous birds and other wildlife.

We're not even one month into 2026, and with everything that's happening, now we have to deal with exploding trees? No, not entirely. But a sudden deep freeze is going to send temperatures plummeting in much of Canada and the U.

Massachusetts probably won’t see the kind of extreme cold necessary for trees to split this weekend. Some parts of the Berkshires could see low temperatures of -6 degrees on Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service, but that won’t be enough to cause any woodland “explosions.”

The arboreal fungus appears on the branches of trees in the genus Prunus. In Minnesota, that means cherry and plum trees.

Council is consulting the public about removing them