Longing For Red And Yellow

At first it was Hurricane Irene, and no one was surprised. Of course the 60 mph winds battered the foliage, and you don’t talk about leaves in the street when there’s a fallen tree in your backyard. The green and brown leaves lying everywhere did make it feel a little like fall, though, back in August.

But now it’s October, and I keep hearing the same question: Why aren’t the leaves changing color? Most of the fallen leaves still seem to be green or brown; leaves are either falling without changing color or not doing anything at all. It’s depressing.

People are starting to put out pumpkins and mums, and my sisters are bugging me to start working on Halloween costumes, but to me it just doesn’t feel right. I was startled by Columbus Day, shocked when we got our midquarter grades — without the proper scenery I guess I don’t notice the passage of time. And without yellow and red leaves, I just don’t notice the fall.

The typical question with any environmental issue nowadays is, “Is this climate change?” People forecast when the foliage in New England will peak, since the “lollipop” trees draw visitors. This year the leaves are late, probably because they need a string of cold nights to change color. They also need lots of sunshine for red hues to emerge, so the rainy and warm weather we’ve been having is most likely behind the late color change. I’ll not get into the whole existence-of-global-warming debate, but if global climate change is behind our rather warm fall, it’s certainly slowing the changing leaves. Researchers have begun to monitor when the leaves change from year to year and how intense the colors are, but weather fluctuates and it’s hard to say when a tree is at its autumn best, so finding overall trends is difficult.

The forecast this week is for another stretch of sixty to seventy-ish days and more showers. Columbus Day was positively balmy. This sort of weather, somewhere between nondescript and summery, is beginning to annoy me. Not only is it monotonous, but this is October! I long for chilly mornings and clear blue skies and golden afternoons, perfect for apple picking and pumpkin carving and kicking a pile of bright red, orange, and gold leaves through the gutter. Alas.