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2011 fall foliage/leaf drop pictures and discussion


earthlight

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The first of the foliage is just beginning now over New England. My family was up in Vermont this weekend and they reported some decent color, mostly at the tree tops. We're heading up there two weekends from now, which should be just around peak season. Meanwhile, post your pictures and discussion on the fall foliage development over the next few weeks.

09172011_lc.gif

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Also headed to Vermont (Manchester to be exact) during fall break the 2nd week of October. Should be brilliant colors by then.

Here in SE PA, we've got some isolated color showing on maples, but otherwise, 98% green.

Definitely some foliage here in Rindge, NH but we're an isolated area of higher elevation in Southern New Hampshire, much of which is lower terrain. I was in Barrington, NH this weekend near the coast, and it was 99% green there. Being at 1300' makes a significant difference in the arrival of fall foliage season, so there's some good hints of color around campus at Hampshire Country School.

The weekend you are coming to New England is the weekend I'm headed home, I believe, LOL.

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I've noticed that October essentially brings the beginning of autumn colors here. We often go through September as another summer month as far as foliage and leaf drop is concerned.

Strongly agree. I've noticed there's an uptick from nothing to low color the first week of October, then we seem to remain steady for a couple weeks, and October 15th-25th is a rapid progression from low to moderate to high color, finally peak the last week of October +/- a couple weeks. The past couple autumns have been better w/ the peak in the Oct 23rd-28th period. A few years in the 2005-2008 period were like early/mid Nov peaks. Essentially we have about 5-5.5 months of green leaves, early May to mid October.

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Definitely some foliage here in Rindge, NH but we're an isolated area of higher elevation in Southern New Hampshire, much of which is lower terrain. I was in Barrington, NH this weekend near the coast, and it was 99% green there. Being at 1300' makes a significant difference in the arrival of fall foliage season, so there's some good hints of color around campus at Hampshire Country School.

The weekend you are coming to New England is the weekend I'm headed home, I believe, LOL.

Yeah, the colors up your way should be exploding in the next couple weeks w/ all these nights in the 40s and mild days in the 60s. Perfect wx for foliage. I'll only be up in Vermont for a few days, then back to Monmouth County for the remainder of fall break. I always love this time of year -- optimism is high for the ensuing winter, at least until December when we either realize its going to be a crapper or not. Winter outlooks only a month away. Summer really flew by this year.

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Each fallen leaf sets the stage, where the only thing missing will be the falling snow. Fall is nature's most dramatic scene change and converts us from beach bumming to snow shoveling. The elephant will be in the room soon (not Snuffy) and let the real blizzard tracking commence.

Step 1: Lose the heat (that happened already)

Step 2: Lose the high sun angle at noon (notice that)

Step 3: Lose the colorful leaves (not yet)

Step 4: Lose more daylight (3-5 minutes a day)

Step 5: Lose your shovel in the 10ft drift (patience)

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I'm in upstate NY. We had a pretty good blowdown of leaves with the tropical weather X 2 a few weeks back. Lots of brown dead leaves on the ground now.

The ones on the trees are hanging in well. Some color just arriving on stressed maples. I would expect us to reach peak at our usual time which is second week in October.

It will be interesting to see if the trees shed quickly because of hidden damage from the rough weather we had earlier.

It has been several years since we had really great foliage. Seems like we get a wind driven rainstorm at just the wrong time these last few years.

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Some trees seem to be turning a yellowish/brown here.

I thought i could be due to drought stress, but we had the wettest August on record, so i'm not sure whats going on

...here on the east end of LI alot of the trees also showing signs of

brown or dead...i think irene and her salty winds will diminsh our peak season

which is around halloween..

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Yeah quite a few leaves down and I've noticed a few trees turning as well. The weather we've been having, sunny warm days and cool nights with little rain should be ideal going forward however. Hopefully no more excessive rainy periods.

...here on the east end of LI alot of the trees also showing signs of

brown or dead...i think irene and her salty winds will diminsh our peak season

which is around halloween..

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Nassau County a hint of color on the trees, but it is definitely there...looking out my work window now i see some yellow and orange appearing in the tree...still very early though. My mark is always halloween, that is when our best color is...on the island anyway, im sure its different N and W

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I saw ONE tree with pretty significant red tips, this same tree is always the first to change colors, usually WEEKS before anything else does. I don't know why it does this every year, everything else looks pretty much Spring/Summer-like as it should.

Late-October/Early-November is when we normally peak, the later the better imo, I never look forward the dead/dormant landscape.

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off to a slow start compared to 2010 to say the least.

2011

http://www.foliagene...09212011_lc.gif

2010

http://www.foliagene...09222010_lc.gif

Sometimes the difference from year to year on those maps regarding the early marginal changes I think are more due to who is making the assesments. I still haven't been totaly able to pin down the timing variations from year to year. I always felt the precip factor played a large role, but the more I've looked into it, it seems you need an extreme deficit or surplus to truly force the season early or late. Being 5 inches below or above normal for the year often won't sway the season much earlier or later respectively. 1990 and 1996 were extraordinarily wet and the foliage season was very late. 1995 was very dry and it came very early. 2001 was also early it seemed...since then we've seen some seasons sort of violate the precip rule, 2003 was early despite a wet summer, 2005 was late despite a dry summer and fall until we got to October.....its possible those nighttime temps are more significant than I thought.

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Sometimes the difference from year to year on those maps regarding the early marginal changes I think are more due to who is making the assesments. I still haven't been totaly able to pin down the timing variations from year to year. I always felt the precip factor played a large role, but the more I've looked into it, it seems you need an extreme deficit or surplus to truly force the season early or late. Being 5 inches below or above normal for the year often won't sway the season much earlier or later respectively. 1990 and 1996 were extraordinarily wet and the foliage season was very late. 1995 was very dry and it came very early. 2001 was also early it seemed...since then we've seen some seasons sort of violate the precip rule, 2003 was early despite a wet summer, 2005 was late despite a dry summer and fall until we got to October.....its possible those nighttime temps are more significant than I thought.

Yeah from my observations I tend to think temperatures play a more significant role, possibly influencing foliage peaks up to 3 weeks before or after what's considered "normal" peak. Both 2005 and 2007 were very warm autumns, and I recall green leaves on some trees through mid November. 2006 and 2008 featured cooler Octobers, and foliage peaked in my area around the 3rd week of October.

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The past two Octobers -- 2009 and 2010, were fairly normal temp wise, and I also felt foliage peaked near the average time of on or just prior to Halloween.

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Sunlight is obviously the major factor, but I'd say we can have swings of as much as 3 weeks depending on temp profile, and maybe precip adds another week. So in total, about a month variation in foliage peak, unrelated to sunlight changes.

The earliest I remember foliage peaking in my area is about Oct 22-23rd, while the latest (2005) was around November 10th-13th. So about a 3 week difference, but that's going off of the small sample size of 5-7 years that I've been noting foliage. I've always wondered when the earliest and latest dates of peak foliage were in our area.

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off to a slow start compared to 2010 to say the least.

2011

http://www.foliagene...09212011_lc.gif

2010

http://www.foliagene...09222010_lc.gif

Yeah, noticed that yesterday. I made so plans to see the colors based on last years progression, looks like I may be traveling a little higher in elevation to see what I wanted come early Oct.

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Yeah from my observations I tend to think temperatures play a more significant role, possibly influencing foliage peaks up to 3 weeks before or after what's considered "normal" peak. Both 2005 and 2007 were very warm autumns, and I recall green leaves on some trees through mid November. 2006 and 2008 featured cooler Octobers, and foliage peaked in my area around the 3rd week of October.

The past two Octobers -- 2009 and 2010, were fairly normal temp wise, and I also felt foliage peaked near the average time of on or just prior to Halloween.

Sunlight is obviously the major factor, but I'd say we can have swings of as much as 3 weeks depending on temp profile, and maybe precip adds another week. So in total, about a month variation in foliage peak, unrelated to sunlight changes.

The earliest I remember foliage peaking in my area is about Oct 22-23rd, while the latest (2005) was around November 10th-13th. So about a 3 week difference, but that's going off of the small sample size of 5-7 years that I've been noting foliage. I've always wondered when the earliest and latest dates of peak foliage were in our area.

Very interesting. I tend to agree with your thinking.

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Interesting developments here...

I'd say about 30% the trees are still completely green.

About 25% have turned a brownish, burnt yellow. Again I'd think this could be because of too much rain this summer, which affects leaves just as too little rain does.

Another 25% have some natural color on them

The last 20% are just showing signs of changing.

Color should explode in the next few weeks

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Starting to see a bit of change even with the milder weather. With the cool shot this weekend, prob get a bit more change

Yeah noticed that as well and was a bit surprised. Latest foliage network report has colors exploding to mod/high in NNE. They'll probably approach peak by next week with the several days of cool/cold weather ahead.

Around here, we usually start getting into low color by the beginning of October, but then hold steady for a couple weeks before we ramp up.

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