High hopes for colorful fall foliage
Colors are popping, and this should be a banner year for leaf pigments.
This time of year, we wish we could age with the grace of the season.
Flecks and clusters of colors are showing up all over the region, and in two to three weeks, the annual fall foliage show should be in full splendor.
Peak foliage already is showing up in northern New England and sifting southward like a spectacular tide. Closer to home, the trees in extreme northern Pennsylvania and the state's Laurel Highlands are peaking.
We've never known autumn to disappoint, but we have higher hopes than usual for this season. The antecedent conditions have been decent.
As Penn State foliage expert Marc D. Abrams points out, the growing season conditions are important. You want plentiful but not too much rain.
And right about now, you root for a sequence of sunny days and cool – but not frosty – nights, and that appears to be on the menu this week with sun, highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s.
That lineup is ideal for stoking the anthocyanin – the stuff that animates cranberries and apples -- in the leaves.
The three basic pigments -- anthocyanins, carotenoids (think corn and pumpkins) and the basic green chlorophyll -- orchestrate all those spectacular variations on a theme that enchant the trees from the Carolinas to Canada.
As you might have read, some are saying that worldwide temperature increase might mute the show. We haven't seen any evidence yet.
If anything, the warmth is prolonging the show, and Abrams thinks the attendant additional moisture might be making the colors brighter.
Just a reminder: Peak foliage dates vary, and a trip might be a game day decision.
Here are a few suggestions for keeping an eye on things:
The Pennsylvania Department of Forestry just posted its weekly update on Pennsylvania conditions. It has an excellent map and regional narratives about changing conditions.It has Philly down for a peak the last week of the month.
This government-run site appears to have worked out its glitches. It monitors conditions nationwide every three days and posts 10-day forecasts.
And this private site offers weekly forecasts in seven color categories.
One thing we can predict confidently: Around here, the best is yet to come, and it won't be long.