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Fall Foliage 2017

powderfreak

By powderfreak,
in New England

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powderfreak

powderfreak

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15 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

I wonder if on overcast days it actually makes the color seem more vibrant than on days like today with a darker Blue Sky? On my video from last year it was a gray day also.

I think it is more vibrant on cloudy days...cloudy days near peak time is the best for photos.  With no post processing you can distinctly see the difference in a cloudy day foliage shot and a bright sunny day foliage shot.  

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tamarack

tamarack

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5 hours ago, IrishRob17 said:

@tamarack A friend of mine who leaves near Brattleboro VT said that he spoke to his county forester who said the dulled and delayed colors in that area is partly due to last years drought.  I've never heard of that before, is it something you or anyone else has heard of before? 

I've never heard of this as a specific drought "holdover" effect, though every year as a forester I see more that I don't know.  If one were to closely examine the brighter spots/trees and find wetter soil pockets, that would support the hypothesis.

PF, re 1600' vs 2400':  I recall a latitude-elevation gradient discussion here several years back, that landed at some 600-700' gain being equal to one degree of northward travel.  Thus, your 2400' past-peak would be about the same as 1600' in the hills east of Montreal.

Today's mid 20s were immediately followed by raining leaves, a constant rustle of falling foliage bouncing thru the branches as I walked the dog at about 7:15, in calm air.  

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OceanStWx

OceanStWx

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I haven't seen anything that says prior year's weather is a strong influence on leaf color. It's mostly things we have discussed already: warm and dry leads to dull, short-lived, early drop. Cool nights/mild days with lots of sun is good. Lots of overcast and rain can dull the colors too (most pigments need some sun to be produced). Freezing temps trigger leaf drop.

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powderfreak

powderfreak

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2 minutes ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Some fairly awful foliage colors today in Northwestern Massachusetts, among the worst I can remember. I did the drive to Mt Greylock and then on to the Mohawk Trail. Most of the landscape is either brown or green with oak trees providing that color.

BE (Medium).JPG

Wow.  That's amazing.  I've never seen such a mix of bare trees and green leaves as in this photo.  That's like 50-50 green/brownish and bare.  Crazy.

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Sugarloaf1989

Sugarloaf1989

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10 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Wow.  That's amazing.  I've never seen such a mix of bare trees and green leaves as in this photo.  That's like 50-50 green/brownish and bare.  Crazy.

That's Berkshire East Ski Area along Route 2 in Charlemont and indicative of what 75% of the foliage looks like along the Mohawk Trail. It's bad for tourism as well as there where very few cars on the road for what should be peak foliage conditions.

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Sugarloaf1989

Sugarloaf1989

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12 hours ago, IrishRob17 said:

@tamarack A friend of mine who leaves near Brattleboro VT said that he spoke to his county forester who said the dulled and delayed colors in that area is partly due to last years drought.  I've never heard of that before, is it something you or anyone else has heard of before? 

The area around Brattleboro is primarily Oak Trees that don't have any fall color until late October. Honestly Brattleboro is not an area with exceptional good fall foliage color to begin with IMHO.

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IrishRob17

IrishRob17

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9 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

The area around Brattleboro is primarily Oak Trees that don't have any fall color until late October. Honestly Brattleboro is not an area with exceptional good fall foliage color to begin with IMHO.

He works in Brattleboro, where I see about the oaks now, and lives in Newfane, from which he posts lovely photos of Main Street, not so much this year 

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wxeyeNH

wxeyeNH

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Just took the picture below.  Photo was taken at 1400 feet from the Bridgewater/Plymouth NH town line looking north towards the wind turbines just west of Plymouth center.  Pretty amazing to see everything basically green even at elevation.  Normally we are at peak with the ridges yellow and red.  Not this year.  Maybe next week or maybe everything will just stay muted as I saw in the Whites 2 days ago.  We will see.

Photo taken on default settings from my Samsung Galaxy Note.  No enhancements or changes to the image...

Foliage Oct 14.jpg

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Hoth

Hoth

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3 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

Just took the picture below.  Photo was taken at 1400 feet from the Bridgewater/Plymouth NH town line looking north towards the wind turbines just west of Plymouth center.  Pretty amazing to see everything basically green even at elevation.  Normally we are at peak with the ridges yellow and red.  Not this year.  Maybe next week or maybe everything will just stay muted as I saw in the Whites 2 days ago.  We will see.

Photo taken on default settings from my Samsung Galaxy Note.  No enhancements or changes to the image...

Foliage Oct 14.jpg

That's a mighty fine lawn. Bust out the Slip 'n' Slide.

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Lava Rock

Lava Rock

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Cloudy skies yesterday afternoon really seemed to bring out the colors. 

Without a doubt, I feel the colors are more vibrant and colorful with cloudy autumn skies.  With full sunlight it can be a little "harsh" on the colors, especially when taking photos.

Here's one I liked from yesterday afternoon of the lower elevations on Mansfield.  In this photo is roughly 1,600ft up to 2,400ft in elevation.  Even in this small elevation change, you can tell the top half has more leaf drop than the bottom zone of the photo.  Above 2,400ft up to the treeline is quickly turning into stick season.

miYmW4m.jpg&key=acba6371f98d9e1b9543a1bb5d334d554bc7b24cdd2d7fcecebb52f8c67f8a51

Drool. Wish we had that 2 weeks ago. Nice

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

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wxeyeNH

wxeyeNH

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4 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

Just took the picture below.  Photo was taken at 1400 feet from the Bridgewater/Plymouth NH town line looking north towards the wind turbines just west of Plymouth center.  Pretty amazing to see everything basically green even at elevation.  Normally we are at peak with the ridges yellow and red.  Not this year.  Maybe next week or maybe everything will just stay muted as I saw in the Whites 2 days ago.  We will see.

Photo taken on default settings from my Samsung Galaxy Note.  No enhancements or changes to the image...

Foliage Oct 14.jpg

I know PF, its nuts.  Tomorrow's strong SW winds will not strip away much if anything.  Perhaps a nice peak late this week after we get lots more days of dry sunny weather without any fropa's or wind.  I have posted my drone flight from last Oct 18th which I deemed as peak day.  Went back and realized I took a drone flight on the 16th.  So the screen grab below is almost exacly a year ago.  Usually, peak varies a few days each year but not this much.  I will be very interested to see what happens this week as we did have that cold night a couple of days ago.  

Oct 16.jpg

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powderfreak

powderfreak

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50 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

I know PF, its nuts.  Tomorrow's strong SW winds will not strip away much if anything.  Perhaps a nice peak late this week after we get lots more days of dry sunny weather without any fropa's or wind.  I have posted my drone flight from last Oct 18th which I deemed as peak day.  Went back and realized I took a drone flight on the 16th.  So the screen grab below is almost exacly a year ago.  Usually, peak varies a few days each year but not this much.  I will be very interested to see what happens this week as we did have that cold night a couple of days ago. 

Monday looks quite cold and Monday night will be the coldest night of the season so far... I wonder if that will jump start the foliage there.

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WxBlue

WxBlue

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37 minutes ago, MaineJayhawk said:

I took this yesterday at the Willey House

FB_IMG_1508029318005.jpg

 

I ended up going to Crawford Notch today. Yellows are really dull, but oranges and reds mixed in well with green pines like above. Thought it looked great to someone not familiar with New England foliage, although it's clearly not the best year. I'll post my pictures tomorrow (not feeling great at this moment). 

I also drove eastern half of Kancamagus Highway and took Bear Notch Rd detour from there to Hart's Location/Crawford Notch. Conway/North Conway area was a madhouse and I had to get around it somehow. I thought the first five miles of Kancamagus from Conway was gorgeous. Colors were the best in that section before dulling out quickly the higher I get on the highway. I had a great time photographing Swift River with bright reds and average yellows popping in with pine trees. I even took my shoes off and walked into freezing water some to get "the shot".

If I'm still here by next foliage, I'm positive I will return to this area because I can't imagine what it would be like if colors aren't so dull. I was blown away by the scenery even in a "poor" season.

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MaineJayhawk

MaineJayhawk

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58 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

My wife (currently feeling under the weather) asked for me to stay around the house today and skip the hike. And as a bonus I got called into work. Eisenhower will have to wait.

It looked like the Presidentials from Pierce on up were socked in as of 1:00, though the cloud deck was lifting over there as we left Chocorua.  So maybe you missed nothing on Ike, but elsewhere it was fantastic.  No worries, those mountains will always be there ^_^

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