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New England Foliage Thread


TauntonBlizzard2013

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Even when the rains stopped in mid August, the trees were winding down and the heavier rains up thru that point meant the water table was high.  It took nearly 5 weeks of <25% normal precip to drag the Sandy River down to median flow.  I think the relatively long sunny stretch coming right after the first freeze (for most foothills/mtn areas) did the trick.  It's as fast an almost-nothing-to-peak change as I can remember.

 

Well over 50% leaf drop around home, though lots of color remains along my commute to Augusta.  Only the one tall oak retains nearly full foliage near our house.

 

Yeah I was thinking there may be a couple things in play, but basically the unseasonably cold snap that occurred mid-September (several record low max temps at least in VT, followed by some record lows), which was followed by a week of sunny, dry, 70/43 type stuff. 

 

For me, the color exploded literally within 24 hours of that first freeze on the morning of Friday the 19th.  That weekend I was out and took the first photos of expanding color, which went from nothing to patches of real vibrancy in literally 48 hours.  

 

I think the real culprit may have been the warmth in early September was delaying any early change...but then the bottom fell out and at least here in VT we had 2-3 days in a row with record or near-record maxes, and back to back afternoons in the 40s, even in the valleys.  That period of the 12th-14th was such a shock to the system, people wearing shorts a t-shirts coming outside to find that its 47F at 2pm in the afternoon in mid-September. 

 

The vegetation had to notice some of that, too with that week averaging -10 departures.  The mean temperatures that week were 10 to almost 30 (!) degrees lower than they were that first week of September...air conditioning one week, heat the next.  That shock, capped off with the first good solid freeze at the end of the cold snap, had to have the trees thinking snow was imminent lol.  Time to drop those leaves.  Then once the process was jump started, we went sunny and dry with near perfect temps for foliage.

 

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Had similar temp trends here, with high-dew warmth turning cool on 9/7, the eight days 9/13-20 running -9.6, then the unlimited sun and 30F+ diurnal swings for 9/24-28.  The most dramatic color change here was the period 9/27-30.

 

 

1   79  62  70.5   9.1

2   78  60  69     7.7

3   75  59  67     6.2

4   76  48  62     1.6

5   82  52  67     7.0

6   80  60  70    10.3

7   69  46  57.5  -1.9

8   69  40  54.5  -4.5

9   67  36  51.5  -7.0

10  67  41  54    -4.0

11  61  53  57    -0.4

12  60  43  51.5  -5.3

13  53  32  42.5  -14.0

14  58  40  49    -7.3

15  59  28  43.5  -12.5

16  58  42  50    -5.6

17  64  36  50    -5.1

18  61  38  49.5  -5.4

19  55  26  40.5  -14.2

20  56  28  42   -12.6

21  65  47  56     1.5

22  64  47  55.5   1.3

23  61  38  49.5  -4.3

24  63  33  48    -5.6

25  65  40  52.5  -1.0

26  74  36  55     1.7

27  78  45  61.5   8.4

28  81   44  62.5   9.7

29  68   48  58    5.8

30  59   46  52.5  1.1

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I am making my triumphant return to the northeast on Friday/Saturday... I'll be at West Point.. Any color reports in that area? The predicted high temperature (58), will be the coldest thing I've felt since who knows when! I hope my blood hasn't thinned too much.

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I am making my triumphant return to the northeast on Friday/Saturday... I'll be at West Point.. Any color reports in that area? The predicted high temperature (58), will be the coldest thing I've felt since who knows when! I hope my blood hasn't thinned too much.

There's some decent color here in the Mid-Hudson Valley.  Go Army! :P

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I had to go a bit north today into Plymouth and the colors seemed much better than here.  Looking at the faces of the most Southern of the White Mountains there was a lot of color.  The swamps are past peak.  Brisk winds in the next 24 hours are going to bring down a lot of leaves in the Northern parts of the Lakes Region of NH.  Oaks are just starting to turn.  Its going to be really hard for me to determine peak right in my area while just 25 miles north and beyond there was a nice spike right up to peak and then leaf drop the past several days.  Needless to say the hordes of leaf peepers are going to be disappointed when they get up to the White and Greens this weekend that will be well past peak. 

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Going to be some disappointed leaf peepers this holiday weekend....unless they like left-over orange/yellow that's still hanging on amongst bare trees.

 

1959743_10205097623785669_23185984675496

 

 

Still lingering yellows and oranges though...but nothing like the brochure foliage of 7-14 days ago.

 

1780828_10205097624065676_32446590328715

 

 

:(  :thumbsdown:

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That bolded part is for sure. If I've been on a photo for too long trying to balance it, I'll take a break, look at the original, and come back to it later. If you work on it too long you forget the original and what you were trying to fix in the first place.

A lot of times with ski photos I'm taking action shots in low light so most of my efforts in the winter is brightening the shot without losing the crisp detail.

I think this is an argument for just using the curves tool rather than a variety.  You can click back and forth on the preview to make sure you're not straying too far from the original and it's not a tedious process.  

If you are getting too many under-exposed images, you can try just adding it a bit of exposure compensation.  Another fix on some cameras that have it available is to use exposure and/or iso bracketing which is nice if you are taking pics on the mtn where you may be contending with cold and tough lighting and one chance at getting the shot you want.

Of course it's weird giving advice to someone who takes nicer pics than me already :P

In a way I like to think about taking photos and what settings to use and whatnot more than actually taking them.

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Going to be some disappointed leaf peepers this holiday weekend....unless they like left-over orange/yellow that's still hanging on amongst bare trees.

Still lingering yellows and oranges though...but nothing like the brochure foliage of 7-14 ]

I always thought it was over by Columbus Day around here just about every year anyway. I am salivating over the golf course though.
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I always thought it was over by Columbus Day around here just about every year anyway. I am salivating over the golf course though.

Yeah it is usually...I remember the same thing last year. Guests being disappointed that it was all over. To me if your looking for foliage in mid-October your best bet is to stay in SNE or maybe parts of CNE?

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Drove up to Colchester today and was actually surprised that there was some decent color left through Bolton Flats in the lower elevations. Ran into the same sprinkles that PF did near JSpin's.

Yeah still good color with reds visible in Richmond and Williston along I-89....really liked the views of Honey Hollow and Robbins Mountain, then near Cochrans ski area through French Hill in Williston.

Color definitely does out once you hit the Waterbury line though.

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Was in the woods north of Bigelow and Flagstaff Lake yesterday.  The mountain is practically all gray (or evergreens) while the lowlands where I was taking growth measurements were way past peak with about 75% leaf drop.  Even so, there were pockets of bright color, mainly on sugar maples plus some late-changing red maple, in places sheltered from wind.

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Was in the woods north of Bigelow and Flagstaff Lake yesterday.  The mountain is practically all gray (or evergreens) while the lowlands where I was taking growth measurements were way past peak with about 75% leaf drop.  Even so, there were pockets of bright color, mainly on sugar maples plus some late-changing red maple, in places sheltered from wind.

 

Yup, My red maple is holding on for dear life

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For folks that doubted me or thought I was making stuff up..this is what our foliage looks like this year..Very very blah..and again..I'm really not sure what caused it..but it's the worst in many yrs

 

Josh Phillips Wx ‏@JoshPhillipsWx  10m

@ericfisher @danburyweather @Connecticut_WX @Nick_SNEwx Foliage from Coventry, CT 10/10/14

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BznTxsLIgAAfzjg.jpg
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