Well, it’s that glorious time of year again, when our forests, along with our prized neighborhood trees, begin to astound us with their spectacular annual color display. But here’s a question, just what is the “kick” that gets the whole show started? I’ve met plenty of folks who think that decreasing daylight provides that kick, while plenty of other folks think that temperatures are the main thing.
If you were in the “shorter daylight” camp, you are correct! It is indeed the shortening daylight that does the trick. Chlorophyll, which keeps the leaves green in summer, eventually breaks down, as it does so, the green color of summer fades from the leaf, revealing a lot of yellows, golds and oranges which were there all along! It’s just that the green pigments “masked them.”
Now to add to the pallet some of those incredible reds, we want a nice run of warm, sunny days and cool but not freezing nights. The sunny days increase the production of anthocyanin pigments, and it is those pigments which produce the reds, crimsons and purples.
There are always two things which can really hurt the fabulous fall display, a hard freeze or a wind storm. A few years back we had a hard freeze too early and a lot of trees went almost directly to brown.
And lots of wind is no good at all because it can strip the leaves from the trees prematurely.
So cross your fingers for lots of sunny days and for having no hard freeze or strong winds, and we’ll be in for quite a show!
Say, one quick note before next time, I really want to help get the word out that The National Weather Service is embarking upon a Hazard Simplification Program, and they really want your feedback!
Here is the website where you can provide it, while keeping up-to-date on the project – www.weather.gov/hazardsimplification
If not are not a computer user, you can provide your input by calling Donald Dumont, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Caribou at 492-0180 Ext. 223.
To give you a sense of just some of the flood products presently in use, there is the Flood Watch, the Flash Flood Watch, the Urban Flood and Small Stream Advisory, the Areal Flood Warning, and again that’s just some of the flood products. You get the picture. It can be quite confusing, and that is why the National Weather Service is trying to simplify things!
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Va. native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
