Fall Color Report
2024 Updates
For the 13th year in a row, WataugaOnline.com is teaming up with Dr. Howard Neufeld, Professor of Plant Eco-physiology at Appalachian State University, better known as The Fall Color Guy to provide information as the colors start changing. For reports from previous years click here.
Dr. Neufeld shared some thoughts just before previous fall seasons that are still relevant for this or any fall season:
As for wet weather, there have been some publications on the impacts of weather on fall color (especially timing, not so much quality). Precipitation has only minor effects on timing in the fall. Temperature is more important. So, at this point, I don't see anything to make me think that fall colors will be adversely affected, either in timing or quality.
What happens in mid- to late August and in September, temperature-wise, will be more important, especially for quality (notably the intensity of the red colors)”.
People think fall colors are good when they last a long time, and have plenty of brilliant reds interspersed with the oranges and yellows. So, the quality will depend on how much “redness” we have this fall.
Trees tend to make more red colors (anthocyanins) in the fall when it's cool and sunny, and if we have a slight but not severe drought.
Sunny days means more photosynthesis, and more sugars produced in the leaves, and sugars induce anthocyanin production.
A slight drought impairs uptake of nitrogen (we think) and some experiments suggest that plants low on N make more anthocyanins.
Usually, fall colors peak around Oct 11-14 in the Boone area; sooner by a few days up to a week at higher elevations, later at lower ones. Nice colors can stick around for a week or more, although the peak usually comes and goes in just a few days, weather permitting (no high winds for example)”.
Fall Color Report for Week of September 1, 2024
It’s still a little early for fall colors, but surprisingly, as many of you have noticed from the photos by Tom Mabry and others, some trees are turning early. I recently drove from Boone to Atlanta for the holiday break to see my son and his wife and their one and a half year old son, Oliver, my first grandson. As you may expect, he’s very cute, and in the imitation phase now – you do something and he mimics it back at you.
A variety of trees are showing color now, some at high elevations, but some at lower and southern locales, like in Georgia. For example, I saw sourwoods along the highways in the Piedmont of NC turning red, and in Georgia sumacs were almost entirely red. All along the way, roadside red and sugar maples were turning, and most prominently, tulip poplars in the Piedmont from NC to GA. These trees had lots of yellowing leaves, which is often a sign of heat and drought stress. Tulip poplars don’t like severe drought and when it does occur, the first thing they do is drop some of their leaves, usually the older, inner canopy, less active ones. This means that they have fewer leaves to lose water from and that helps them maintain their water status until it rains again. In the mountains, where its cooler and we are not in drought, most tulip poplars still have all green leaves.
I don’t think this portends an early start to the fall leaf color season. Rather, I think it is symptomatic of the weird summer we’ve been having. It was brutally hot and dry in June, then cool and wet in July, and then we went back to hot and dry in August. Luckily, temperatures have moderated as of today and are supposed to remain comfortable for a few more days.
I still think what happens starting two weeks from now will be the major determinant of the quality of our fall color leaf show this year. If we get a cooling off in the latter half of September, and it continues into the first half of October, then colors will be right on time and hopefully of good quality. If it stays warm though, they could be delayed as well as diminished in their intensity.
I’ve attached three graphics you might find useful. One is heat map showing when colors normally peak in western North Carolina. Another is a graph I published last year showing how the week of peak color has bounced around through the years. Notice how it was mostly within the same time slot from 2008 – 2016, but that from 2017 – 2023 it has moved around, sometimes even being two weeks late as in 2018. In fact, the variability in timing is twice as high in the past seven years as it was in the first eight years of my writing forecasts. I attribute this to climate change, as increased variability is one of the predicted symptoms for this phenomenon.
The last graphic is a table listing the major tree species by the colors their leaves turn in the fall. If you’re not a plant taxonomist but still want to know what tree species you are viewing, take a closeup picture of a leaf from that tree. If you have Google Lens, or some other plant ID program, like iNaturalist, you can use it to identify the tree for you. I routinely use Lens on my Android phone with great success.
My first official foray into the field will be in two weeks to Craggy Gardens, which is a high elevation site along the Blue Ridge Parkway, about 20 miles north of Asheville. Remember, colors appear first at higher elevations and then work their way down over time.
There is some major construction occurring on the northern sections of the Parkway in NC. Click HERE to see where the road closures are and how to detour around them.
The Parkway is totally closed just north of Doughton Park at mile marker 238.5 north to 221.5. However, the restaurant is open, and you should be able to get to Wildcat Overlook which is adjacent to the picnic area and old hotel (not open). You can take US 221 through West Jefferson to detour around closures and access Doughton Park on Rt. 18.
A short section of the Parkway is closed between mile markers 248 and 249. From mile marker 282 north to 261 it may be one lane, and occasionally closed, but otherwise open. The same for Blowing Rock to Linn Cove Viaduct. From the linn Cove Viaduct south to the Smokies, the Parkway appears totally open.
I have attached some photos of trees on the App State campus from earlier this week. Enjoy!
