While Massachusetts is one of the most beautiful states in the country, it is unfortunately under nearly constant threat from storms. Winter blizzards, summer thunderstorms, Nor’easters, and even the occasional hurricane can seemingly come out of nowhere. If you aren’t prepared, you may be dealing with severe damage to your property – not only from the storm itself but also from your trees.
However, you don’t need to remove all your trees to stay safe from storms like the fierce Nor’easters that define our winters!
In this article, we’ll explore how Nor’easters (and other storms) impact trees in southeastern Massachusetts, particularly in Bristol, Norfolk, Middlesex, and Plymouth counties. Whether you’re in coastal towns like Quincy and Plymouth or more inland areas like Easton, MA, you’ll learn the unique challenges Nor’easters pose to trees in our region, how strategic pruning can help protect your trees from wicked weather, and what to do it your trees do suffer storm damage.
Key Takeaways
- Nor’easters are violent winter storms that bring heavy winds and precipitation; trees are often in danger of uprooting or having broken branches during storms.
- Pruning your trees can lower the risk of storm damage, though extreme conditions can harm them even with proper pruning.
- Pruning to reduce the risk of storm damage involves removing deadwood, overly long branches, weak branch unions, and competing branches.
- Pruning to prevent damage from a Nor’easter is best done in the summer or early winter, while winter pruning will reduce the risk of summer storm damage.
- After a storm, you still may need a tree care company to remove a tree, prune partially broken branches, or cable or brace weak branches.
What is a Nor’easter?
Nor’easters are dangerous storms that typically occur in the coastal northeast United States in winter. In Massachusetts, our Nor’easter season falls between October and April (though they can happen any time of year). A typical Nor’easter will bring heavy rain and snow, gale-force winds, and occasional flooding.
For example, a recent Nor’easter in 2024 brought intense snow in February. In Bristol County, Swansea and Fall River recorded 7 inches of snow during the storm. Long-time residents will remember the massive blizzard of 2015 when Boston saw over 2 feet of snow.
Nor’easters (as well as summer storms) can develop quickly, making proactive preventive measures critical to protect your trees. Having a regular arborist inspection to identify potential risks and keeping up with maintenance pruning will go a long way toward keeping your trees – and you – safe. By the time you find out about a storm, it may be too late to do anything to limit damage.
Typical Tree Damage Caused by Nor’easters
There are many ways a tree can fail during a storm, particularly if it hasn’t been well maintained. However, there are three types of tree damage we see most often in southeastern Massachusetts:
- Broken branches: Strong winds or heavy snowfall may break branches. Winds can carry these branches into nearby structures, while branches breaking from heavy snow and ice may damage anything under the tree.
- Uprooting: Rain and wind are a dangerous combination that can easily uproot a tree. Rain saturates the soil and doesn’t allow a tree’s roots to remain well-anchored to the ground, making it easier for the wind to uproot these trees.
- Split trunks: If a tree is internally weak from decay or has weak branch attachments, the trunk may split during a storm.
Pruning Methods to Protect Your Tree from a Nor’easter
Most trees will benefit from regular pruning, but it’s even more important in coastal areas of Massachusetts, such as Quincy or Plymouth, where Nor’easters are a severe threat. We recommend these types of pruning to help make your trees safer during storm season:
Deadwood Removal
Removing deadwood should be the priority when pruning a tree to limit damage from Nor’easters and other storms. Dead branches (as well as ones infected with diseases or riddled with pests) are brittle and easily broken during high winds, heavy rainfall, or under ice and snow loads. Deadwood removal can be done any time of year, but it’s most important to do it before the Nor’easter season arrives.
Pruning Out Competing Branches
Competing branches fight each other for space within the tree canopy. When they grow too close, they often rub against each other, weakening both branches and wounding the bark (potentially attracting destructive insects and diseases). Removing competing branches to keep only one healthy branch will open up the tree canopy and strengthen the remaining limb.
Removing Overextended and Overlong Branches
Tree branches may sometimes grow longer than others, unbalancing the tree and increasing the risk of storm damage. You can perform structural pruning to remove these overly long branches and reduce the risk of the tree toppling or the branches breaking.
WARNING: No tree is totally safe during a storm, even when properly pruned. Always use caution around trees during and after a storm and leave the cleanup to a professional.
Pruning Isn’t the Only Way to Protect Your Tree from Storm Damage
Aside from pruning, an arborist may suggest cabling and/or bracing to prevent a tree from splitting apart or dropping weakly attached branches.
Storm Protection Pruning: What’s The Best Timing?
With the limited warning we get before many Nor’easters (and other storms), it isn’t feasible to schedule pruning right before a storm. Instead, you’ll need to have it performed preventively to protect yourself during the storm season.
PRO TIP: Pruning, particularly for larger trees, is best left to the professionals. Improper pruning can leave your tree more vulnerable to breakage and premature decline, rather than making it safer. If you aren’t comfortable with pruning a tree or need to prune a large one, leave it to tree pruning experts like Regal Tree.
Summer Pruning for Damage Prevention
Pruning trees in summer can help prepare them for potential winter or spring storms. However, summer pruning is best reserved for deadwooding, minor corrections, and overall shaping, rather than major structural work (unless the tree requires it).
The benefits of summer pruning include:
- Deadwood is easier to spot: With a tree fully leafed out, you can quickly identify any dead or diseased material. Summer is the best time to remove deadwood.
- Seeing the tree’s full shape: In the summer, you’ll see the exact shape of the tree when fully-leafed out, allowing you to identify any overlong branches or opportunities to raise the canopy.
Winter Tree Pruning for Damage Prevention
In general, we recommend pruning most trees while they’re dormant. Early winter pruning could help avoid damage from Nor’easters, while late winter pruning protects them from summer storms.
Winter pruning has several benefits, including:
- Dormant trees are less stressed by pruning: Dormant trees won’t suffer the same shock and stress they might when you prune during the growing season. It also doesn’t promote new growth that could easily snap off during a storm.
- Disease spread is limited: The last thing you want to do is weaken your trees by opening them up to attacks from insects and diseases. Diseases (and the insects that carry them) typically don’t spread in the winter, making it a safer time to prune trees.
- The tree’s internal structure is visible: Winter pruning allows you to see all the branches without the leaves in the way. This will make it easier to see any competing branches, split or cracked limbs, or over-long branches in need of removal.
What to Do If a Nor’easter Damages Your Trees
Even with preventive pruning, you may still be faced with storm damage after a Nor’easter. Pruning can only do so much to protect a tree, and extreme weather may bring branches (or even the entire tree) down regardless of any preventive measures. We hope any storm damage to your property is minor, but this is not always the case.
Some of the professional services we may recommend if your trees have sustained storm damage include:
- Tree removal: When you have a downed tree or one that is significantly damaged and cannot be repaired through corrective pruning, we recommend removing the tree as quickly as possible to get your yard back to normal.
- Additional pruning: If the storm damaged branches but they are still attached, pruning might be the best way to avoid them causing further injury, such as torn bark, or breaking in the next storm.
Regal Tree Can Help Protect Your Trees from Nor’easters
Trees are tough, but they aren’t invincible. In the winter, trees are already dealing with snow and freezing temperatures in Norfolk, Bristol, and Middlesex counties. When these problems are compounded by a Nor’easter, it can be catastrophic, leading to broken branches, split trunks, and uprooted trees.
At Regal Tree, we can help protect your trees and restore them after damage from Nor’easters. With professional tree pruning, such as summer deadwooding and winter structural work, your trees will be better prepared for whatever our coastal Massachusetts weather throws at them.
Call us today at 774-719-2450 or request a quote online to schedule your storm protection pruning!
