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2023 Leaf Change and Fall Color Where You Are

In keeping with the Saskatchewan theme - fall colours on Brabant Lake, September 16th.

Not a lot of reds in this area, but the yellow and gold of the birch and aspen make a nice contrast with the evergreens.
 
In northern Nevada and the eastern Sierra the willows have turned, the aspens are starting. In town the maples and oaks are beginning to turn red. My maple in the yard has already turned orange and lost most of its leaves. The middle of Oct is the peak time around here. Some snow this weekend above 7000 feet.
 
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here in SW Ohio I’m seeing some good colors. We have been dry so I’m not expecting great colors. In the past week it’s been changing more.
 
Nothing but brown in CNY. Not much color at all. Maybe too much rain this Summer.
 
We took a 100 mile drive around northwest Connecticut and abutting parts of New York yesterday, lunching outdoors at McEnroe Farm in Millerton, NY, and didn't see any significant color. About 10% of the weak and boring trees were bare of their quickly browned and dried leaves. Of the great majority of trees that remain leaved, about 90% were still green and about 10% had some yellow or light brown. We only saw maybe five striking red-leaved trees on the whole trip.

I recall a time in the mid-80's when the Farmington River New Boston slalom race used to be held in conjunction with hundreds of river runners. One year the air and wind were so bitterly cold that our club actually quit the river in mid-run and hiked back to our cars for warmth. That was the only time that cold ever stopped a river trip I was on, and in New England we'd start in late February and follow the snow melt line north every weekend for three months.
 
We had a wet winter this year and the trees and shrubs are brilliant. The Valley is full of bright red maples. I just planted one in my yard this week.
 
We finally got enough of a frost to convince the White Oak to start changing although most of the Red Oak remains Green. Maples are, surprisingly, hanging in there but I doubt we'll get better color than right now. Like the corn & soybeans, we seem to be running about 10 days behind schedule at this point.

Today on Lake Raystown:

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Frost has little to do with leaf senescense.
That's what I always thought yet every year, the oaks don't seem to start changing until we get a good freeze. Maples appear to be more photo-period sensitive and the Hickory seem to change, like clockwork, around October 1st every year.
 
Work took me through The Monongahela Nat'l Forest in WV the past 2 days. Although leaves are past their prime, this is a gorgeous area even when the trees are bare. DSCN1964[1].JPG
(OK, so the first isn't actually in the nat'l forest... One of the most photographed spots in WV... the bridge over the New River Gorge)
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OK, last one isn't in the Nat'l Forest either. (pretty good focus for 65 mph though)
 
pretty good in CO this year..

backpack into Rocky Mt NP,

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Up in Steamboat Springs,

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took the canoes up to Pearl lake,

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caught some grayling, their color was good too ;-)

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this Saturday is forecast for 6" of snow in Denver, more in the mountains. That's all folks.. for the colors this year.
 
We have plenty of aspens in the Sierra, but Colorado is the only place I have seen bright red aspens. They come in yellow of course, but also orange and red are very common. The landscape can look psychedelic.
 
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