How much does wood season in the cold of winter?

[Bigg_Redd]

Various dictionaries disagree.

Webster's:
2season
verb: to make (wood) ready for use by slowly drying it

Dictionary.com:
verb(used with object)

11. to mature, ripen, or condition by exposure to suitable conditions or treatment: a writer seasoned by experience.

12. to dry or otherwise treat (lumber)


Anyways, yes your wood still dries, but more slowly. I imagine it dries especially slower if you live in an area that gets a lot of snow. Even when its freezing down here, there's rarely any snow, so my stack are still fully exposed to sun and wind. If your stacks are buried in snow and ice for months at a time, that may effect the seasoning process more than just cold weather.

The problem with that definition visa vis firewood is as follows: if one were to take a cord of dry, ready-to-burn wood and submerge it in a lake till it reached maximum saturation, that wood does not become "green" again. It becomes wet, seasoned wood.

 

[Hogwildz]

It gets pretty dry here in the winter, so the wood seasons and dries just fine, maybe even better than summer, due to the much lower humidity.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

It gets pretty dry here in the winter, so the wood seasons and dries just fine, maybe even better than summer, due to the much lower humidity.

That's not true, its still humid outside just not inside. 80% humidity outside at 0 degrees is like 4% humidity at 70 degrees. If the air can't hold much water it can't absorb much. That's why in winter you might see a dew point of -20*

 

[BrotherBart]

That's not true, its still humid outside just not inside. 80% humidity outside at 0 degrees is like 4% humidity at 70 degrees. If the air can't hold much water it can't absorb much. That's why in winter you might see a dew point of -20*

Go outside sometime and watch the water rising off of the snow in the yard as it evaporates on the coldest days.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Go outside sometime and watch the water rising off of the snow in the yard as it evaporates on the coldest days.

Dry your clothes in the dryer with the gas off. then again with the gas on.

 

[BrotherBart]

When we get gas here I will give it a try. But I do dry clothes on the line in the winter.

 

[Hogwildz]

At temps below the dew point water will leave the air, and same goes for the wood,
so the wood will still season during the winter months.

 

[Hogwildz]

Ah, here we go, again......

 

[jatoxico]

Plenty of research on this subject has been conducted by the lumber industry. Wood dries more slowly as temperature drops.

 

[weatherguy]

So if I put fresh cut wood in my oven for 12 hours at 200 degrees I can take it from one stove and put it in the other, nice, works well with my loading schedule :D

 

[billb3]

"very little drying" is a subjective term and it is most certainly not "none".
Which was the OP's original question.

Plenty of research on this subject has been conducted by the lumber industry. Wood dries more slowly as temperature drops.

But it doesn't stop and neither is temperature the only influencing variable.

Which is why your front door /opening frame ( if you have a wood one ) can swell in the Summer with heat and humidity and bind and shrink in the Winter with lower rel hum and temp.

 

[Osage]

So if your area has an average humidity of say 25%, does that mean that you cannot expect your wood to not go below that point?

 

[paul bunion]

So if your area has an average humidity of say 25%, does that mean that you cannot expect your wood to not go below that point?

No. Relative humidity is expressed as the amount of water that air can hold at a given temp. Wood moisture content is expressed as the weight of water contained within dry wood. What air can hold at a given temp is not the amount in wood vs. it's dry weight.

Air at 25% has a lot of ability to gather water from your wood where air at 85% is well on its way to being totally saturated and cannot carry much more water.

 

[Osage]

No. Relative humidity is expressed as the amount of water that air can hold at a given temp. Wood moisture content is expressed as the weight of water contained within dry wood. What air can hold at a given temp is not the amount in wood vs. it's dry weight.

Air at 25% has a lot of ability to gather water from your wood where air at 85% is well on its way to being totally saturated and cannot carry much more water.

Thanks for the clarification, understandable even to a farm kid like me.

 

[ewdudley]

No. Relative humidity is expressed as the amount of water that air can hold at a given temp. Wood moisture content is expressed as the weight of water contained within dry wood. What air can hold at a given temp is not the amount in wood vs. it's dry weight.
Air at 25% has a lot of ability to gather water from your wood where air at 85% is well on its way to being totally saturated and cannot carry much more water.

Thanks for the clarification, understandable even to a farm kid like me.

But it does not follow that 20 degF air at 25% RH will dry faster than 85 degF air at 85%. Ask yourself if fresh cut alfalfa would dry faster on a hot muggy summer day or a crisp dry winter day.

 

[paul bunion]

But it does not follow that 20 degF air at 25% RH will dry faster than 85 degF air at 85%. Ask yourself if fresh cut alfalfa would dry faster on a hot muggy summer day or a crisp dry winter day.

It's all relative.

 

[jatoxico]

"very little drying" is a subjective term and it is most certainly not "none".
Which was the OP's original question.

But it doesn't stop and neither is temperature the only influencing variable.

Which is why your front door /opening frame ( if you have a wood one ) can swell in the Summer with heat and humidity and bind and shrink in the Winter with lower rel hum and temp.

Who said anything about none?

"Very little drying" is subjective because "winter" is subjective. Given a specific temp, humidity and wood species the drying rate has been worked out.

In those publications I've read all calc's performed assume wood under cover with minimum 2" overhang (nod and a wink to BWS) and unless we want to go out to extremes, temperature is the primary driving force.

As far as your door analogy, once wood is dried to the EMC and can be used for manufacturing then it will change dimensionally based on EMC and temp but that does not change the fact that wood dries slower as temp drops.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

The humidity around here is about 20% in winter and 60-70% in summer so i think it would dry faster in winter. ANd YES water does evaporate slowly even when frozen.

 

[shoot-straight]

wood dries like this- at first its homogeneously wet throughout. the outer edges are exposed, so moisture evaportates. as it does, moisture from the inside moves out. SLOWLY. thats why wood does not dry equally throughout. woods that are more dense makes the transport even more difficult. ex: oak vs pine

in the OP's case the moisture is locked INSIDE the wood (frozen). the outside will dry some, but water has to be in liquid form to move outward. so i will say again, overall, there is very little drying occuring in those temps. and as we all know, its the internal moisture that is critical.

now here- it is warmer. if the wood isnt frozen, it dries great with a dry cold wind. end point, its different with every case.

 

[billb3]

This of course assumes the center is frozen.

 

[Osage]

But it does not follow that 20 degF air at 25% RH will dry faster than 85 degF air at 85%. Ask yourself if fresh cut alfalfa would dry faster on a hot muggy summer day or a crisp dry winter day.

Well------------I've never cut alfalfa in the winter,it might. Maybe it's kinda like if a tree falls in the forrest and no one is around to hear it does it make a noise.

 

[WiscWoody]

It's a science that is over my head. I think some of it depends on the suns angle in the winter which is low up here in the north. I don't see any of the snow up here going away this winter, steaming or otherwise. But come late March the suns angle will start to heat up dark roofs and asphalt causing some steaming and by late May, Shazzam! Our snow is all gone until Our next winter starts in late October! I season my split wood for two years minimum and alls good then.

 

[tsquini]

Low humidity and wind is what seasons wood. Winter summer does not matter. The biggest detergent from seasoning wood in the winter is having it covered completely with snow. The snow blocks the wind and insulates it from the dry air. The same thing occurs in the summer if you were to cover your stacks completely with a tarp. The moisture has no where to go and the wood will not season.