Fall Colors

This has not been the best color year here in New England, but it is not bad. Here in Mass on I-90 from Boston to the NY state line, you should find the elusive "peak" somewhere along the way today, through the weekend. I think that favorites Rt 9 and Rt 2 , a little north will be past by then. Rt 7 a north south road in the western part of Mass will also have some variation. I understand that the Vt portion of 7 is past (from the official map.....I didn't see it this year). The portion through the Ct hills should be great, but I have no actual information on that.
 
Both the 50 50 diner and The 1776 Old Mill restaurant on Rt 2a in the middle of the state, (near Fitchburg and Westminster) have had a good season according to the servers that I've talked to. (use "search to find info on both places on this site). Part of the reason for good biz in an average color year, is that weekend weather has been great.

As I sit here in my office I can see the red maple my 22-year-old grandson planted in the back yard when he was 4, and it is almost entirely a beautiful lust red color.

The leaves here tend to go from green to brown. The main exceptions are the sweet gums in the hills northeast of here and the Bradford pears planted around all the shopping malls

With the extended hot Summer running up to the 1st of October and no rain in September at all, the Fall Color has been rather 'dull' and a very short time period here in the Ohio Valley.

Maples are at their peak here in New Paltz, oaks are past their peak and shedding fast, our ginko is still green and it should be a magnificent yellow by now. However, the mountainside is a glorious spread of color, even though green seems to be more obvious than usual for this time of year. We are yet to have a frost - I think it may be the latest ever. We bought fresh sweet corn at a local roadstand  on Saturday  and they are still picking a few ripe tomatoes for local consumption - despite the shortened daylight. Gail picked a bouquet of zinnias from our garden today -something that was up till now unheard of this late in the season in our area. 
 
Anyhow, if you want fall color the Hudson Valley is the place to be right now.
 
Cheers, John 

mayor al


With the extended hot Summer running up to the 1st of October and no rain in September at all, the Fall Color has been rather 'dull' and a very short time period here in the Ohio Valley.

 
Pretty much the same thing here 45 miles west of Chicago though I'm looking out at a very vibrant red maple. One of the few I've seen, many trees empty, some half gone, some still green. We had a very warm summer and high 80's in early October.

The colors here in Frederick County Md. are still pretty good.

No pretty fall leaves here - we've had only a combined one inch of rain in the last 3 months so our trees look like a sepia photo.  Everything is dry and brittle - there's a burn ban so we can't set fire to all of the branches and leaves that have fallen.
The water garden is a very popular place - we've seen lots of critters coming for a drink - squirrels, deer, foxes and last Saturday a bobcat.
The acorn crop is poor this year so we'll be putting out lots of corn this winter.
 

Fall colors in the mountains of TN & NC should peak this weekend. October has been a wonderful month!  Just outstanding!

mayor al


With the extended hot Summer running up to the 1st of October and no rain in September at all, the Fall Color has been rather 'dull' and a very short time period here in the Ohio Valley.

 
Al
 
We got very little color, everything has been dry brown since September.
 
We are now approaching a 9 inch deficit in the rainfall category.  Had several large brush fires here the last week or so.  A Red Flag warning has been issued for the day
 
high winds - low humidity - no real rain since July = Red Flag Warning and NO FALL COLOR

Yeah, we usually burn our annual tree prunings and brush pile in November, but due to the dry conditions I think we'll wait for some snow cover to help keep the danger level down !!

I heard on the news this morning that the colors are done in northern Wisconsin but there are still some good spots in the southern parts of the state (Crawford, Iowa, and Rock Counties were specifically mentioned).
 
Does it count if I use colorful language when cleaning the leaves out of the gutters?
 
Brad