For those who love autumn and everything about it, the bright colors of autumn are going to dissipate before our eyes quickly, almost even before they appear. In fact, will they appear this year? What affects autumn leaves this way? Where can we go to see the autumn colors at their peak of brilliance? Or do we just wait patiently for next year, when weather patterns change and fall colors change accordingly?

The actual phenomenon of leaves changing colors in the fall of the year is directly related to chlorophyll production. Chlorophyll is the green substance in leaves that interacts with sunlight to feed the trees. Changing weather conditions trigger the trees to begin to store sugar in their roots for the coming year’s growth. Temperatures dip and days shorten. Chlorophyll breaks down and leaf colors change.

So, this cycle of life in the world of trees does not change – at least here in the Northeast. Temperatures drop, and days shorten going into winter. What does change is weather conditions. And of course, weather conditions change from year to year. Weather conditions in spring, summer and fall affect the timing and the brightness of the color change.

A dry summer can mean a more vibrant fall, and a rainy summer can result in duller hues. "For the best fall color, you want a gradual but steady temperature change," says Kathy Matthews, Associate Professor of Biology at Western Carolina University. She has spent 10 years studying and predicting the timing of the changing leaves for peak viewing. "If nighttime temperatures continually fall to freezing, the timing of the color change across all species can occur almost simultaneously.

In our area, a good predictor is a few days after the first frost. That dip toward freezing starts the breakdown of chlorophyll. While the science behind the changing colors is directly related to temperature and length of daylight hours, it is also affected by elevation. In mountainous areas, fall colors peak earlier than the trees located in lower elevations. And as noted earlier, the amount of precipitation will always affect the brilliance of the hues.

As of this writing, the trees I’ve seen have been lackluster in their performance However, the science behind the changing of leaf color would support what has been a dull show this year: nights have been continuously warm which means the breakdown of chlorophyll is slow to begin. An unusually wet trend over most of the East Coast in recent months has served to water down the colors of fall. The moving parts of this evolution do point to a lack of brilliance this autumn. Trees and their leaves are just following historic weather trends, as they do each year.

The photograph you see here is one of the brightest trees I’ve seen locally as of late October. The blaze-orange pops of color we often see at this time of year may not materialize at all this year due to the weather conditions earlier in the year. And as the temperatures drop, the leaves will too.

However, the weather is cyclical as we know, and there will be more color in years to follow. And weather conditions are different in different parts of the country, of course. An article on this topic in a recent issue of Birds and Blooms lists a number of popular leaf-peeping destinations: the Catskill Mountains in New York; Aspen, Colorado; and the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Great Smoky Mountains, to name a few. And my personal favorite, the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania – sometimes …

Read other fall related gardening articles