What Splits in Sumner County Storms: Bradford Pears and Other Weak Trees
The trees that break first in a Middle Tennessee storm are often the ones planted for their looks, and most of the warning signs can be seen from the ground in late winter.
Why Callery pears come apart
The Bradford pear was planted for its tidy, egg-shaped crown, and that shape is the problem. Tennessee's conservation magazine explains that the tree sends multiple tight branches out from the same section of trunk, and that as it grows taller those crowded unions become a structural weakness that storms find. It puts the start of failures at about 15 to 20 years. Clemson's extension service describes severe splitting in trees 15 years and older, gives the species a life span of 15 to 25 years, and notes that the narrow branch angles split especially under ice and storm conditions.
The trees also spread. Newer Callery cultivars cross-pollinate the older Bradfords, and the fruit that results is eaten by flocks of European starlings, especially after frost softens it, so seedlings turn up well beyond the yards where the trees were planted. The Tennessee Invasive Plant Council lists Bradford pear as an established threat, yet the magazine notes it is still legal to buy in Tennessee, unlike in Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
The storm calendar that tests them
Many of Sumner County's damaging storms have arrived in spring. The F3 of April 7, 2006, crossed Hendersonville and Gallatin in the early afternoon; baseball-size hail fell at White House on April 16, 1998; and the derecho of May 3, 2020, left numerous trees down in Gallatin, with a gust of 71 mph measured at the Nashville airport. May is also the wettest month in NOAA's normals for the airport, at 5.50 inches.
Winter and early spring add their own loads. The storm of January 22 and 23, 2026, put half an inch of ice or more on the Nashville metro, and ice is exactly the condition Clemson singles out for Bradford pear splitting. On March 2 and 3, 2023, a very strong low pressure system brought winds measured up to 80 mph across Middle Tennessee. A pear that came through one of those with a crack at its main fork carries that crack into the next one.
Other trees on the same list
Pears are not alone. Mississippi State Extension's guide to storm-resistant trees names boxelder, eastern cottonwood, red maple and silver maple as brittle-wooded species to keep away from structures. A large silver maple spreading over a roof deserves the same late-winter look as a pear, and the same question: what would it hit if a limb let go?
Ash is a special case. Emerald ash borer larvae feed between the bark and the sapwood and cut off the tree's water and nutrients, and Tennessee's forestry division says decline shows one to three years after infestation. The beetle had been confirmed in 67 Tennessee counties by December 2025, including Robertson County on Sumner's western edge. Once more than half of an ash crown has thinned, the state says insecticides generally cannot help, and the tree becomes a removal question.
Topped trees of any species belong on the list too. ISA explains that the shoots growing from topping cuts are anchored only in the outer layers of the parent branch, grow as much as 20 feet in a year, and break easily in wind or ice. By contrast, the same Mississippi State guide rates eastern redcedar, the evergreen that invades old fields and pastures, as ice resistant.
What to look for in late winter
Late winter, with the leaves off and before the spring flush that ISA recommends pruning ahead of, is the time to look. Nashville's normals still count 8.5 freezing nights in March and put the median last freeze on April 6, so the window runs through February and March in most years. Walk around each tree and look up at the main unions for these signs.
Any of those over a roof, a drive, a play area or the service wire is worth an arborist's look before storm season. The Gallatin Department of Electricity leaves the service wire to the owner, so clearing a split limb above that wire is the owner's job, and the department will disconnect the service so a crew can do it safely.
- A crack running down from a tight fork, or bark pinched and folded into a union
- Part of the crown that leafed out thin last summer, or bare branch tips
- Hangers: limbs broken by ice or wind and still lodged in the crown
- On ash: D-shaped exit holes about 1/8 inch wide, pale patches where woodpeckers flaked the bark, sprouts along the trunk
- Clusters of upright sprouts growing from old topping cuts
- A new lean, or soil lifted on one side of the base
Remove, reduce or replace
A pear already cracked at its main fork cannot be pruned back into a sound tree, because the defect is in its structure. Reduction pruning can lighten a heavy limb on a sound maple, cutting back to a branch at least a third the diameter of the one removed and taking no more than 25 percent of the crown, as ISA advises. For the pear, removal and replanting is usually the practical answer, done on a calm day rather than after the next warning.
Timing is part of the cost. HomeGuide's national guide prices emergency tree work at double to triple the normal rate, so a pear taken down on a dry weekday in February costs well under what the same tree costs to lift off a roof the night after a storm. The Insurance Information Institute adds that a tree which falls without hitting a covered structure generally gets no removal coverage, and that a failure caused by poor upkeep falls outside coverage altogether.
Tennessee's conservation magazine suggests native dogwood, serviceberry and redbud for the same spring bloom without the splitting. Under power lines, Tri-County Electric approves only dogwood in its rights-of-way, and every provider in the county keeps its own clearance. The tree removal page covers methods and pricing for the pear itself, and the overview of tree service around Gallatin covers the local rules that come with any job.
Found a crack or a split fork? Describe the tree and what it would hit, and independent crews around Gallatin will price pruning or removal.
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Quick Answers
At what age does a Bradford pear usually start to split?
Tennessee's conservation magazine puts it at about 15 to 20 years, when the crowded branch unions become a structural weakness, and Clemson's extension service describes severe splitting in trees older than 15 and gives the species a life span of 15 to 25 years. By that measure, a pear planted in the early 2000s is already at or past the age when failures begin.
Should a Bradford pear be removed before it splits?
Where a failure would land on something, taking it down on a calm schedule usually costs less than a storm call. HomeGuide puts storm-call pricing at two or three times a normal visit, and the Insurance Information Institute excludes damage that comes from poor maintenance, so a pear with an obvious crack is a poor bet. The Tennessee Invasive Plant Council's listing of Callery pear as an established threat is one more reason not to replace it with another.
Are the cedars in old fields a storm risk too?
Less than the pears, on the evidence available. Mississippi State Extension rates eastern redcedar as ice resistant. The Forest Service's silvics manual notes that on shallow soils its roots are very fibrous and spread widely, and that it does not sprout from a cut stump, so removing a cedar that leans over a drive is a one-time job. Its thin bark does leave it easily injured by fire, which matters when brush is burned nearby.
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