WOAY-TV (Oak Hill, WV): Despite the historical West Virginia drought, we have been observing patches of brilliant fall colors, but why?
Below is the checklist for this year’s fall foliage:
YES: Severe drought in the summer. What does this trigger? Early shutdown of the trees heading into winter and leaves fall off trees without reaching their full potential. We did see the leaves START to change color earlier than normal this year. However, a severe summer drought also delays the onset of the fall colors by a few weeks. Normally we see peak or the most widespread brilliant fall foliage for Bridge Day but this year it was one week afterwards.
YES: Succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights yields the most spectacular color. Check out the cool overnight readings and warm daytime highs as reported from the Beckley-Raleigh County Airport this month.
YES: The first hard freeze of the season was not early but instead 4 days after the 30-year average. An early freeze leads to poor fall color because it kills the processes within the leaf that lead to the hues we see.
YES: Rain and wind in the fall can knock down leaves prematurely and shorten the display at its peak. Helene’s rain and wind gusts did knock down many leaves, otherwise, we would see more extensive fall colors. Below is Chief Meteorologist Chad Merrill’s Facebook Live during Helene’s wrath in Fayette County in late September.
NO: A warm period in the fall lowers the intensity of the autumn colors. We have seen warm days but cool nights most of October.
The bottom line is while we didn’t have the full stunning effect of last year’s foliage season, the leaves that didn’t fall off early or in Helene’s winds featured more intense color thanks to the sunny days and cool, crisp nights we had before the fall freeze occurred on October 17.
The trees were already shutting down for the season before Helene’s rainfall, so the moisture was never transported to the branches and leaves but rather saved in the trees’ reservoirs or underground storage. So, Helene’s rain never “awakened” the trees.
What can we expect going forward? A rapid drop in leaves through early November and the foliage season will be history by about Election Day.