BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 12, 2015 19:37:13 GMT -8
Some years, NW NJ has green leaves on the trees all the way to Halloween. I doubt this will be such a year. Quite a few trees are already starting to turn, and a little rain today brought down more of them than I expected. Maybe the unusually dry summer played a role. Usually, though, dry years hit first at the trees on side hills with thin soil, whereas this early change seems more widespread. I suppose the high country in the Rockies is even farther along. Is the season changing all over?
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 12, 2015 21:38:23 GMT -8
Hard to say out here in CA, BL. Things had turned brown at Mt. Lassen last weekend, but I think it was the drought, not fall. That's affecting vegetation all over the state.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2015 5:27:26 GMT -8
Our first killing frost on average is around mid-September in the foothills and up to a month earlier at higher elevations. But so far there's no sign of it. We had a patchy light frost in late August that does not seem to have instigated any color change in the trees.
I'll get a better idea on Thursday when I visit Spearfish Canyon. That area has the most variety of autumn color in any year. A couple years ago we had up to five feet of snow in the first week of October, about three weeks from now. Things can change quite suddenly, but no sign of that yet. Nights are cooler, in the 50-something °F range. But autumn colors do not seem imminent at all. I'm ready for snow.
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Post by badknees on Sept 13, 2015 6:52:56 GMT -8
Strange summer up here in Maine. Tomatoes are done for the year. 95 degrees the other day and now it really feels like fall. Leaves are starting to change and drop. It's going to be a nasty winter I fear.
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toejam
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Post by toejam on Sept 13, 2015 7:11:06 GMT -8
What is this rain you speak of?
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 13, 2015 8:04:23 GMT -8
We had a nice little storm that quickly headed north and east. After a few hours of drizzle, it dumped 2.3" and then blew away. Even so, we're about 8" below average this year.
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Woodsie
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Post by Woodsie on Sept 13, 2015 8:37:08 GMT -8
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Sept 13, 2015 8:38:24 GMT -8
Coincidentally, a headline on Page 8 of today's paper says "Hard-hit Trees Drop Leaves Early". The article cited not only this year's dryness, but a succession of low-rain years. It also noted that younger trees are more vulnerable, which I noticed in areas further east. It also said that many of those trees may be dead.  |
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trinity
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Post by trinity on Sept 13, 2015 8:46:15 GMT -8
We don't do fall foliage here in central Texas, so I'm hoping to see some in the Winds next week.
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Post by ecocentric on Sept 13, 2015 12:57:54 GMT -8
I have paid close attention to such things since 1970. Here in the highlands of southern Indiana, the rain was bountiful and regular (weekly) until the end of August. The corn looks great, but most peoples tomatoes have done poorly. Trees normally drop a few leaves all season long, but with little or no stress for moisture, they seem to have dropped a bunch of leaves all at once when the rain let up for three weeks. This was the best growing year in my lifetime, I blame a lot of that on 400 ppm of CO2 and ample rainfall, but the temperatures were pretty moderate as well. The impact on agriculture in California is obvious in prices at the grocery store. It should be a good year for squirrels and deer, the mast crop was abundant. I'm seeing a lot of fat turkeys.
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davesenesac
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Post by davesenesac on Sept 13, 2015 19:36:41 GMT -8
Yeah the summer of 2015 is racing to an end with fall about to rise. Days will be shortening rapidly as the Earth's tilt goes through the steepest sign wave curve at the equinox. Fall leaf color here in California will however be among the poorest in my lifetime. Timing on droughty slopes for aspen will occur early while those along permanent streams at normal dates. With our severe drought now in year 3, I'm once again not going to even bother visiting Eastern Sierra aspen groves just as I avoided last fall. Simply much too dry. Sure there are always nice trees right along permanent stream areas but the considerable groves that depend on seepage along bedrock boundaries a few feet under sediments will look dry with weak color. Seen this before and have no interest. Also had an interest in making a really long drive to northern Utah Wasatch areas that have red maples in addition to aspen but precipitation there has been too weird also to consider that gamble. Instead might make the 280 mile drive north up to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and try working some of the bigleaf maple areas along redwood grove streams that might be about end of October? What the state desperately needs now are some earlier than normal cold fronts coming down from the Gulf of Alaska to put out all these devastating fires and dampen up our desperately tinder dry forests. David www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_Chronicles/2015_Trip-Chronicles-0.html |
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Post by ecocentric on Sept 13, 2015 21:55:48 GMT -8
Technically speaking, abscission, the process where the leaf becomes isolated from a trees vascular system is triggered by day length. It happens every year within a few days, based on how sunny or cloudy the weather is. After that, it progresses faster in hot weather and slower in cool weather. Colors are more vibrant when trees have received sufficient rainfall and bright sunlight cooks out the last of the chlorophyll to reveal the other pigments. Every year is a little different. We had a three week drought, but are returning to normal just as most trees are about to abscise. I can't say for sure what kind of fall color we will have, but I think that if we get a modicum of rain during the next few weeks, we should see a lot of color.
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