# Ice and snow on trees: what to do with a bent, split or broken tree after a storm

> How much weight ice puts on a tree, whether a bent or split tree can be saved, which native trees hold up in ice storms, and what to cut or leave for spring.

Published 2026-10-16. Tags: Decay & damage, Protection & care. By Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ice-and-snow-damage-on-trees/

A tree or branch bent under ice or snow is best left alone. Wood that is bent but not broken often straightens once the load melts, and knocking the ice off breaks limbs that were only bent. A split trunk or a torn fork is a different case, judged by how much of the tree is still sound. A broken limb is cut cleanly back to the branch collar once the weather allows. Ice coats every twig, and it can add up to 30 times a branch's weight.

![Paper birch arched over under a thick coat of ice and snow, its crown bent down to the snowy ground](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/ice-and-snow-damage-on-trees-1-1000.jpg?v=d9e0fb3c "A paper birch bowed to the ground by ice and snow in Nobleton, Ontario, on December 26, 2013. Past a bend of 60 degrees, the chance of recovery is low.")
*Photo: KatieThebeau, [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AI_wonder_if_this_tree_will_recover_(11568776516).jpg))*

## How ice and snow break a tree

Rain that freezes on contact builds a glaze on every twig. A coat a quarter to half an inch thick can break small branches and weak limbs, and half an inch to an inch can cause conspicuous breakage. Wind on an iced crown does the most damage. Before the sap rises in late winter the bark is tight, but after that a breaking limb can strip the bark from the stem below it.

After an ice storm in February 1990, a survey of the 10,713 street trees in Urbana, Illinois, found that big trees with broad crowns took most of the damage. Fine, dense branching gathered more ice and broke more often, while the strength of a species' wood showed no link to damage. Forest trees with narrow, high crowns fared better than street trees grown in the open.

![Thin branches and twigs encased in clear ice, small icicles hanging from the tips, against a gray sky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/ice-and-snow-damage-on-trees-2-1000.jpg?v=62a1e607 "Twigs sealed in glaze in Buffalo, New York, on February 23, 2023. Fine, dense branching gathers more ice than coarse branching, and breaks more often.")
*Photo: Andre Carrotflower, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AIce-covered_tree_branches_after_late_February_2023_ice_storm%2C_Buffalo%2C_New_York_-_20230223.jpg))*

Ice and wet snow often bend young black cherries and break their leaders. Upright evergreens such as arborvitae and juniper, and clump trees such as birch, take some of the worst damage.

## What to do in the first days

Leave the ice where it is. Wood is brittle in winter, so striking iced branches breaks more than it saves. Shaking a loaded limb can snap it or damage the tissue that carries water and food, harm that may not show until spring. Brush loose snow off a shrub or small evergreen with a gentle upward sweep of a broom, and wait for a thaw before straightening anything.

Do not prune a limb that is only bent, since the wood takes time to return. A stem bent less than 20 degrees recovers, and one bent up to 60 degrees has a good chance. A larger tree bent past 50 to 60 degrees usually stays bent for good, though it may live.

Look up before walking under the tree, since limbs wedged in the crown can fall without warning. Keep away from any limb touching a wire, even with the power off, and call the utility. Broken limbs and damaged trees are often under weight and force that are hard to see:

> "Like mouse traps, ready to spring closed, disturbing these damaged trees or limbs can result in them falling, potentially causing injury or death to the inexperienced person." (Penn State Extension, *Helping Trees Recover After Storms*)

Unless a tree threatens people or property, the decision to take it down can wait until the growing season.

## The cuts, and who makes them

A limb that breaks and hangs in the crown comes down as soon as the weather allows. Cut its stub back to the branch collar, never flush and never leaving it long, as [pruning at the branch collar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/pruning-at-the-branch-collar/index.html.md) shows. A long broken stub heals slowly and invites fungi and insects. Where oak wilt occurs, an oak is not pruned from April through July, or from February through June in Texas, and a storm cut that cannot wait is painted at once.

Where the top has snapped, cut at about 45 degrees just below the break, above the next live branch at least a third the stem's size, and let one leader take over. Never top the tree to make it safer, since topping leads to decay and a weaker frame, and so to more storm damage.

A split fork with one half hanging, a limb resting on a roof or a car, and anything near a wire are jobs for a certified arborist or the utility. For any cut you make yourself, keep your feet on the ground, and never climb a ladder with a chainsaw.

## Can a split or broken tree be saved

How much crown a tree can lose depends on how fast it regrows. Oaks and hickories that lose more than 30 percent of the top, and fast growers that lose more than half, may be injured for good. Yet hardwoods that lose less than three quarters of the crown are expected to recover, though it can take three to six years.

Species and health count as much as the figure. A Forest Service study tagged 400 hardwoods after the ice storm of January 1998 in the Northeast. Four years later every sugar maple, red maple and white ash was alive, even those that had lost more than three quarters of the crown. Paper birch, already infected with root disease, fared worst, and fewer than half of its hardest-hit trees survived.

A narrow [V-shaped fork with bark trapped in it](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md) has little sound wood holding its halves together, and such forks fail more readily under ice and snow. A crack through the trunk, or on two sides of it, means the tree is failing and is very dangerous. A tree that lost a few branches or its leader can and should be saved. One badly disfigured, or missing much of its crown, may live but is usually better taken down.

![Small tree split at its forks at night, its broken stems pale and jagged above branches beaded with ice](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/articles/ice-and-snow-damage-on-trees-3-1000.jpg?v=084710a8 "A tree split apart at its forks by the ice on its own branches, in Arkansas on January 28, 2009. Ice splits forks as well as breaking branches and stems.")
*Photo: Andrew Joseph, [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASplit_up.jpg))*

A tree pushed over is judged at the roots. Soil heaved or cracked on the side away from the lean, or roots pulled from the ground, mean the [root plate](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/glossary/index.html.md#root-plate) has lifted, and such a tree is hard to anchor again. A small tree with an unbroken trunk can be pulled upright and held with slack lines. Size and age are no protection:

> "And, when it comes to ice, age does not make a tree stronger; younger trees are better at actually overcoming damage in ice storms." (Purdue Landscape Report, *Winter Weather Tree Tips*)

## Which native trees hold up in ice

Two ratings agree on most trees: one compiled in 1993 from reports going back to 1900, and a University of Kentucky version of it from 2009. Where they differ, the tables give the range. We do not grow black willow, boxelder, American or Siberian elm, silver maple or the invasive Callery pear.

### Trees that break

| Tree | In ice storms |
| --- | --- |
| [American basswood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-basswood/index.html.md) | Susceptible |
| [Black cherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-cherry/index.html.md) | Susceptible; young trees lose their leaders |
| [Black locust](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-locust/index.html.md) | Susceptible; brittle limbs |
| Black willow | Susceptible; brittle wood |
| Boxelder | Intermediate; weak wood |
| Callery pear | Susceptible; narrow forks with included bark |
| [Common hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) | Susceptible; dense, fine branching |
| Elms, American and Siberian | Susceptible; Siberian elm was the worst hit in Urbana |
| [Pin oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pin-oak/index.html.md) | Intermediate to susceptible; finer branching than other oaks |
| [River birch](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/river-birch/index.html.md) | Susceptible |
| Silver maple | Susceptible; brittle wood |

### Trees that hold

| Tree | In ice storms | Zones | Height, feet |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [American hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-hornbeam/index.html.md) | Resistant | 3–9 | 20–35 |
| [Bald cypress](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/bald-cypress/index.html.md) | Resistant; few damaged in Urbana | 4–10 | 50–80 |
| [Black gum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-gum/index.html.md) | Resistant | 4–9 | 40–70 |
| [Hop hornbeam](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hop-hornbeam/index.html.md) | Resistant; tough, resilient branches | 3–9 | 25–40 |
| [Kentucky coffeetree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/kentucky-coffeetree/index.html.md) | Resistant; less branch surface area | 3–8 | 60–80 |
| [Shagbark hickory](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shagbark-hickory/index.html.md) | Resistant; hickories strongly resist ice | 4–8 | 60–90 |
| [Swamp white oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-white-oak/index.html.md) | Resistant | 3–8 | 50–60 |
| [White oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/white-oak/index.html.md) | Resistant | 3–9 | 50–80 |

No tree is ice-proof: in the 2009 ice storm in western Kentucky, white oaks lost parts of their tops and some hickories were uprooted. Silver maple, willows and Callery pear are also among the [trees not to plant near a house](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/trees-not-to-plant-near-a-house/index.html.md).

Arborvitae divides the sources. The 1993 rating calls it resistant, and no street arborvitae was damaged in Urbana. Yet heavy snow and ice can break the stems of [northern white cedar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-white-cedar/index.html.md), the wild tree behind the garden arborvitae, and make trees lean, or topple where the roots are loose. Arborvitae that browns rather than breaks is the subject of [winter burn on evergreens](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-burn-on-evergreens/index.html.md).

## Preventing the next one

Branches often break where the wood is already weakened by disease or insects. A young tree trained to one leader, with sharp-angled branches removed while small, builds a sound frame, as [training a young tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/training-a-young-tree/index.html.md) sets out. On an older tree, weak branch attachments come out before winter. The Urbana silver maples had been pruned regularly since 1976, and they took only moderate damage.

Conical trees with one central leader, as most conifers are, and coarse-branched species take the least damage from ice. Keep tall trees clear of wires: the [site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=hop-hornbeam&line=20) grades a species against your spot, its distance from the nearest power line included.

Where a young tree is staked, keep the lines slack so the trunk can move and build strength. A sapling still bent after the thaw can be pulled upright and held the same way, as long as its trunk is not broken.

## What to send us

Blue Whale Trees takes questions about trees people already have on the [support page](https://bluewhaletrees.com/support/index.html.md). Say what the tree is, when the ice or snow came and what broke. Photographs can follow by email once we reply: one of the whole tree with the ground around its base, and a close-up of each break. For the next step:

- **A verdict on a damaged tree:** the [support page](https://bluewhaletrees.com/support/index.html.md), with the species and the date of the storm.
- **The cut itself:** [pruning at the branch collar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/pruning-at-the-branch-collar/index.html.md), with three cuts for any limb too heavy to hold.

## Common questions

### Will a tree bent by ice straighten?

Often, if it is bent rather than broken: a stem bent less than 20 degrees recovers, and one bent up to 60 degrees has a good chance. Wait for a thaw before pulling a small tree upright.

### Should you shake snow off trees?

No, since shaking a loaded limb can snap it. Brush loose snow off a shrub or small evergreen with a gentle upward sweep of a broom, and let ice melt where it is.

### Can a tree with a split trunk be saved?

A crack through the trunk, or on two sides of it, is very dangerous and needs an arborist to judge it. A tree that lost only a few branches or its leader can and should be saved.

### When should I prune a tree damaged by an ice storm?

Take broken limbs back to the branch collar as soon as the weather allows. Decide whether to remove the tree in the growing season, unless it threatens people or property.

## Sources

- [Ice Storm Damage to Urban Trees](https://auf.isa-arbor.com/content/19/4/187): R.J. Hauer, W. Wang and J.O. Dawson, Journal of Arboriculture 19 (1993): rain freezing on contact and adding up to 30 times a branch's weight, the ice thicknesses that break small branches and whole limbs, wind, the survey of 10,713 street trees in Urbana after the storm of February 1990, broad crowns and fine branching against wood strength, forest crowns against open-grown ones, pin oak's finer branching, Callery pear's narrow forks, regularly pruned silver maples, conical and coarse-branched trees, arborvitae and bald cypress, and the 1993 rating of susceptible, intermediate and resistant species in its Table 4.
- [Ice Damage - Managing Woodland Damage and Health](https://eec.ky.gov/Natural-Resources/Forestry/Forest%20Health%20Information/Ice%20Damage%20-%20Managing%20Woodland%20Damage%20and%20Health.pdf): University of Kentucky Forestry Extension (Jeff Stringer, FORFS 09-03, 2009), posted by the Kentucky Division of Forestry: the Kentucky rating adapted from the 1993 one, tight bark before the sap rises, crown loss of 30 percent in oaks and hickories and of half in fast growers, larger trees bent past 50 to 60 degrees, and the damage to white oaks and hickories in western Kentucky in 2009.
- [Tree Survival and Growth Following Ice Storm Injury](https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/5435): USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station (W.C. Shortle, K.T. Smith and K.R. Dudzik, Research Paper NE-723, 2003): 400 hardwoods tagged after the ice storm of January 1998, survival after four years by species and crown loss, paper birch and root disease, and forks split by the weight of ice in the third caption.
- [Caring for Ice-Damaged Trees](https://kytimberdamage.mgcafe.uky.edu/files/2022-07/caring_for_trees_damaged_by_ice.pdf): LandOwner Resource Centre and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Extension Note (1999), posted by University of Kentucky Forestry Extension: brittle frozen wood, no striking of iced branches, a thaw before straightening, recovery by angle of bend, waiting for the growing season, broken stubs, the angled cut below a broken top, and hardwoods with less than three quarters of the crown lost recovering in three to six years.
- [Winter Weather Tree Tips](https://purduelandscapereport.org/article/winter-weather-tree-tips/): Purdue Landscape Report (Lindsey Purcell, 2019): no shaking of loaded limbs and the tissue it can damage, upright evergreens and clump birches among the worst damaged, damage that shows in spring, no pruning of limbs only bent, broken stubs cut to the collar as soon as the weather allows, wires, weak branch attachments removed before winter, and the quotation on age.
- [Helping Trees Recover After Storms](https://extension.psu.edu/helping-trees-recover-after-storms): Penn State Extension (updated 2024), with its page What to Do About Leaning Trees (Brian Wolyniak, updated 2026): power lines even with the power off, limbs under weight and force that are hard to see, the quotation, topping and the decay and storm damage it brings, soil heaved behind a lean and trees hard to anchor again, small trees righted when the trunk is unbroken, and slack lines.
- [Inspection of Storm Damaged Trees](https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/landscape/fact-sheets/inspection-of-storm-damaged-trees): UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery and Urban Forestry Program (H. Dennis P. Ryan and Brian Kane): V-shaped forks with included bark failing under ice and snow, cracks through the trunk or on two sides of it, a tree that lost a few branches or its leader saved and one badly disfigured removed, one leader favored, and soil heaving and root plate lifting.
- [Storm Damage](https://extension.umd.edu/resource/storm-damage): University of Maryland Extension, Home and Garden Information Center (2023), with its page Winter Damage to Landscape Plants: ice left to melt, snow swept upward with a broom, branches bent under snow and ice that return to normal as it melts, wind in ice storms, and iced branches more brittle.
- [Tree Care Before and After Storms](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/tree-plant-care/plant-care-resources/tree-care-before-and-after-storms/): The Morton Arboretum, with its tree pages for silver maple, boxelder, black willow, Callery pear, common hackberry, black cherry, black locust and American basswood: limbs resting on buildings and cars, feet on the ground and no ladder with a chainsaw, branches breaking where wood is already weakened, a central leader and wide branch angles, trees near wires, the weak wood and ice ratings in the first table, and Callery pear as an invasive.
- [Oak wilt in Minnesota](https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/oak-wilt-minnesota): University of Minnesota Extension: no pruning of oaks from April through July where oak wilt occurs, and an unavoidable wound covered at once with latex paint or shellac.
- [Prevent the spread of oak wilt in Texas](https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/prevent-the-spread-of-oak-wilt-in-texas/): Texas A&M Forest Service (2025): no pruning or wounding of oaks in Texas from February through June, and paint on every oak wound in any month.
- [Sweet Pignut Hickory](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/sweet-pignut-hickory): USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America, with the pages for eastern hophornbeam, black cherry, silver maple and northern white-cedar: hickories' strong resistance to ice, hop hornbeam's tough, resilient branches, young black cherries bent by glaze or wet snow and losing their leaders, silver maple's brittle wood, and northern white cedar leaning, breaking or toppling under snow and ice.

## Related

- Next step: [Write to us](https://bluewhaletrees.com/support/index.html.md#contact)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)
- [Pruning at the branch collar, and when to make the cut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/pruning-at-the-branch-collar/index.html.md)
- [A tree struck by lightning: what the strike does, which trees it finds, and whether the tree lives](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-tree-struck-by-lightning/index.html.md)
- [Training a young tree: five years of small cuts for one leader, no narrow forks and a clear trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/training-a-young-tree/index.html.md)