From Pennsylvania to Maine, people have been saying, “Where’s the fall color in the trees?”
The yellows, reds, oranges, even the purples — notable by their absence this year.
It’s the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll needs to degrade (breakdown) so the underlying colors (the anticipated fall colors) can show. Those other colors, the reds etc., are there all the time; they’re just covered by the dominant green of chlorophyll.
With the excessive heat of this summer and fall (ten degrees above normal for mid-October here in PA) the chlorophyll hasn’t degraded. Maine reports seventy per cent less color than a year ago. Now, climate change doesn’t go that fast, so some of this year’s oddity is just that — an oddity. But we are getting warmer and it is going to affect fall color in our trees.