During the winter, Yellowstone was one of the coldest inhabited places on earth. Trees at higher elevations in the park had been known to simply explode, succumbing to the rapid expansion of their frozen sap. The park was also one of the snowiest places in the nation. Snow could fall any day of the year, even in the middle of summer. Average snowfall north and south of the park was roughly twenty feet per year, but Yellowstone itself usually got more than twice that amount.
