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autumn days — not coldness or frost — are what initiates the change-ofcolor process. “It can be 90 degrees and they’ll still turn color,” he said.
While weather factors don’t initiate color change, they do affect intensity. Normal summer rainfall and cool autumn temperatures are conducive to intense leaf colors.
Ideal conditions for a flaming fall landscape include ample precipitation, cool temperatures and hard frosts.
“If we get a hard frost at just about the time the leaves are turning,” said Haskell, “this seems to accelerate the process, and we get a rush of color. All the leaves seem to reach their peaks simultaneously.”
Dry weather is another factor that hastens the arrival of “peak week.” But the usual effect of dry weather is a duller landscape in autumn.
The extreme drought we are now experiencing, then, does not bode well for weekend color-seekers on the Skyline Drive ridgetops. Rainfall quickly drains from the rocky mountaintop soils. Even in years of normal rainfall, the ridgetop trees are no match for the flaming beauties of the mountain coves. At best, the hickories and chestnut oaks along the ridgetops can be expected to sport mottled yellows and dull orange-browns.
The best way to enjoy the autumn foliage is to experience it. Visit the towns, where bright berries highlight the deep maroons of dogwood crowns and where blazing sugar maples shade the streets. Explore the dark mountain coves, where purple ash trees and bronze beeches will embrace you. Wade through abandoned fields and homesteads, over golden glades of hayscented ferns, around brilliant pokeberry patches and beneath wine-red Virginia creepers.
Then, unfailingly, and uncaring of peak dates and rainfall measurements, you can experience the miracles of the season.
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