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Yew self-bow (not a war bow) in the cold?

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Lefty38-55:
Gents:

Used to hear the ‘old wives tale’ that said shooting a yew bow in the cold will break it. I live in the northeast US, where the temperature one night was 28-degrees F outside, or ~ -2C. My SUV had been used so was warmer than being cold. I headed out to my Archery Club’s indoor range that is 20-minutes away, but I did make one stop of no more than 5-10 minutes (car shut off).

Whilst driving, I put the yew ELB across the rear seat as I intentionally didn’t want the heater that blows out from the front seat to harm the bow. Whilst driving the car inside was warm, not below freezing. I took the bow right into the range & let it warm up some & even hand-runner it all over before stringing it, then did a series of 1/2-draws from my left (I’m lefty) and right sides, to warm me AND the bow up.

Used same arrows matched to the bow using the ‘shoot 3 fletched & 3 bare shaft’ method to ensure all arrows hit the same spot. They do, from ~5-yards out to 20 or more. But this night, I noticed a fishtail upon release that I had never seen before. I put the bow on the same scale it was initially tested on (43-pounds) and it now read 49-pounds, checking it 3 times.

The bow is OK, and I shot a 2nd bow ... “just because” ... but what are your thoughts or comments? Would a yew selfbow, even one nicely finished ... weigh or scale that much differently than whence 1st tested when it was likely 80-degrees F outside (~27-degrees C)? Note I have not shot nor tested it since.

Thoughts?

Lefty38-55:
ADDED - I have recorded chronograph data from a Summer session, so can I re-run a
speed test using the same arrows.

stuckinthemud:
I had heard that yew gets stronger in the cold.....

Mikkolaht:
I think warmth has to do with it also humidity is important.
When it gets to below freezing, the humidity drops down.
Junipers become brittle when the air is dry, so do white woods.
When it is too humid, compression strenght becomes weaker.
Tensile strenght gets weaker with dry conditions, sometimes resulting in a breaking. This is more likely with new bows than older bows, because older bows have been used to stretching and have gained some stringfollow.
If the bow is properly sealed and stored in a more humid place there should be no issue.

Temperature also affects, I sont know if it makes bows weaker in tension etc. Only experience is that the warmer it gets the more pounds i lose.

Edit: On some warm summerdays my warbows have dropped even 10punds. One example was my ipe maple hickory 120lbs laminate. At the morning it was 120 and when sun showed up it got down to 110.

Also one wych bow lost like 15pounds but that was part of breaking in.

Just my bits of info what I have gathered.

Lefty38-55:
I shot today when it was 40-degrees out, using the same chronograph, arrows and glove that I had shot through a chrono last Aug/Sept. At the same brace height I recorded 15 FPS faster today. Unfortunately I did not have access to a scale, but from this limited testing, I am seeing faster speeds in cold(er) temperatures.

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