Summerlike heat mutes colors of fall
Tourism officials fear leaf-peeping tourism could be dulled, too
Some might like it hot — but not if you want eye-popping fall foliage.
The ongoing summerlike heat in the Northeast has dulled some of the annual foliage spectacle there, where leaf-peeping typically brings in millions of tourists and hundreds of millions of dollars. The muted colors have come in a year in which experts had originally predicted the cool, wet summer would produce spectacular October foliage, especially in New England.
But the summer was followed by a very hot, dry September, which allowed the leaves to continue producing the chlorophyll that keeps them green.
Chlorophyll production slows and eventually stops in the fall. Without chlorophyll, the yellow and orange pigments of the leaves become dominant, resulting in the many beautiful colors of fall, the Weather Channel said.
Vibrant fall colors occur when three factors come together: the days get shorter, dry weather prevails, and the temperature drops, according Michael Day, University of Maine research professor of physiological ecology.
While the days got shorter and it’s been very dry recently, sustained cool to cold weather hasn’t arrived yet.
How hot? It was the thirdwarmest September on record in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center.
“Tourism is a big part of Vermont’s economy, much of it based on our landscape, and fall foliage as it turns out is a big chunk of that,” said Michael Snyder, commissioner of Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation.
In the Far West, in California’s Sierra Nevada, the fall foliage season had its latest start since 2000, according to SFGate. What’s also weird there is that lower elevations are peaking before higher elevations, which is the opposite of normal.
“Experienced fall color watchers are at a loss to explain why this has happened. Some believe it is because of last winter’s record snow,” California Fall Color site manager John Poimiroo told SFGate.