Not a very enthusiastic picture, is it? And not a very enthusiastic weekend either. Not long ago - well within my memory, and I've only lived here about a dozen years - Columbus Day weekend was "leaf peepers" weekend - a time of peak color when the roads were clogged by sightseeing buses and other assorted tourists from Boston or similarly-deprived locales. If they're out there today they must be disappointed.
I suppose this change has come gradually but last year was the first year I noticed it big-time. I thought then it must be a fluke. Guess not. The color again this year is nowhere near what it used to be in early October - "peak" is forecast for the end of the month now - but leaves are already falling, dropping off from sheer weariness, I suppose. A couple of good, windy days and the trees will be half bare by the time the full color arrives.
I've heard it said it's not the weather - the temperature - that makes the leaves turn but the shortness of the days. And some say it's the amount of rainfall that determines the intensity of the color - we had a damp early summer but August and September were pretty dry. And while the days have been generally warm we've had some pretty chilly nights. So who knows, maybe it's not "warming" that causes that causes this dull display. But it is beginning to seem like a trend. Alas.
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