Written originally on 28 July 2021, re-written

No doubt you may have heard someone talking about early fall color or you’ve seen someone posting a picture of some fall-colored leaves in July or August.

It’s the end of July and I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about this already. Usually, my email starts filling up with questions from worried leaf peepers, asking if they should move up their reservations. Let me try to answer this…

There’s early fall color and then there’s “Early”, Fall Color…

Doesn’t that make it much more clear?

I’m not pulling your leg, there is a very real difference between the two subjects in the heading. First, EARLY fall color arrives in July or August like this:

Now you are going to say… That’s not fall color, that’s only a hint of fall color… These are all Sugar Maples and people will start panicking and posting that fall is coming early!!!

This amount of fall color should not worry you, nope… It should comfort you that the year is progressing normally. This is normal and IF I didn’t see this, then I’d be worried. Let me also say that every other tree in this area was a completely “normal” summer green. No other fall colors were to be seen, so this “early fall color” is just a sample of what’s to come.

Definition of “Early Fall Color,” or normal fall color signs that arrive in July & August

These are the “normal” occurrences that we see in July, August, and even Sept. These are usually indicators NOT that the autumn colors are arriving early, but that the leaves, branches, and full trees are under some form of stress. This stress can be from drought, age, insects, flooded roots, or something we are not aware of (yes climate change could be it as well).

So, I want you to tune out the folks looking to get you to click their images, or those articles we call “clickbait,” as they load up the ads and show you a picture of a red or yellow leaf (is it even from this year?) and they hope you will click on some of their ads.

Please notice I have none of that on this site. I’m posting from the heart and try to give you the best info possible. ((((Shameless Plug)))You will see links to my artwork throughout the website and if you want to support me and this blog, feel free to visit my online gallery. My gallery creates high-quality products and framed prints on different substrates (metal, acrylic, wood). If you don’t need these things please consider becoming a patron and send along a donation. (click here), but I WILL NOT force you to look at ads all over.

So, that is the normal early fall color that we see every single year, I’ll say that again WE SEE THIS EVERY SINGLE YEAR… Now, let’s talk about the OTHER type of early fall color…

The other type of “Early Fall Color” or signs that fall IS coming!

This type of “early fall color” is a real thing and only happens in mid to late September. These are “SIGNS” that the fall colors have really started. Instead of stressed trees worrying us about the fall colors in July or August, this is the “REAL” beginning of turning fall colors.

*note* This article on “Finding Peak Fall Foliage” may help with defining what the different stages are.

Generally, if we get a cold spell in September that lasts a while, the fall colors will start turning. But if the cold spell is followed by a warm spell, then Mother Nature taps on the brakes of the turning fall color. In “past” years, I remember a big hot spell from July through August, and then it seems like we broke the heat around the last week of August with high temps down into the 70s which carried us into September.

About the 2nd to 3rd week of September, the temps would “ consistently ” continue to drop into the 70s/60s (as highs) with lows staying in the upper 30s to low 40s.
**note** I use the word consistently, because, if the fall temps stay consistently in the lower range then there is no slowdown in the turning colors. This would mean by the 24th of Sept, we would see some really nice colors up in places like Dixville Notch NH, and up around Greenville Maine, and if we were lucky into the Northeast Kingdom.

*note* This is an article on the Art of Getting Lost. Learn what it means to get lost but not “really” get lost…

Over the last 20 years, I’ve seen that the temps are rarely consistent. I know from my notes that in 2012, we had cold temps in September, basically across much of New England. We had the fall colors showing up from Vermont all the way down to Connecticut… This made for very confused photographers (like myself) who didn’t know where to go. The problem with this “early fall color” is that it doesn’t last and “usually” slows down (or stops). If we get warming temps, Mother Nature taps the brakes and everybody is looking around and wondering where all the fall colors are going to show up next. Everybody is posting that It was only a week ago that people were talking about all the beautiful fall colors.

It’s not that they lied, but if a cold spell hits a bump and turns to a warm spell, or worse yet a heatwave (think 2017), then Mother Nature doesn’t just tap the brakes, she locks them up hard and slides into a telephone pole… You get the picture, the fall colors stop turning and we have to wait for the temps to drop back to seasonal cooler temps before the colors start turning again.

NORMAL “Early Fall Color” will usually look like this picture. This is on 28 September 2018 but maybe I should say that this is fall color… that is still in the “early stages of turning… Is that more clear? Now, from the 1st – 20th of September 2018, the temps were in the upper 60s to 80s. After the 21st the daytime temps were in the 50s and 60s but the low temps did not drop into the 30s! NOT EVEN ONCE…

Now 2018 was more or less a “normal” year and on 14 Sept and 21 Sept 2018 were very green in Northern New England. The image above was from 28 Sept and there was no appreciable increase in the fall colors. I came back through here on 7 October and the clouds were very low (I mean how low can they go?)

As you can see the fall colors are NOT EARLY by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe they are right on time but the fall colors are NOT early. The warm Sept into Oct did not cooperate and give us early arriving fall colors. But, in the following example, six years prior to the shot above, you will see more of what we WANT to see…

In the two images below you see the Beaver Pond in New Hampshire under what I would term “normal” color arrival. These were taken in 2012 on the 12th of Sept and only 20 days later on 2 October 2012, the Beaver Pond looked like this.

Sometimes the conditions are right for fall colors to show early in one year and not the next… I’m always a broken record on this subject, EVERY YEAR IS DIFFERENT!… Below are images where the fall colors showed up between 23 September to 6 October in different locations in New England. First are 3 shots from Vermont’s Hazen’s Notch on 22 to 23 Sept.(Almost the same day, different years)

In 2020 we were seeing early Peak fall colors between Burke and Guildhall Vermont. The image below was taken on Granby Road on 27/28 Sept in two different years…

What is Normal “early color” is different every year!

Most hear Early Fall Color and start to panic. They want to see where and how much. But I believe it’s my job to call out these “Clickbait” wasters of our time. Once in a while, they are true but on most occasions they are wrong! (Hello 2020) but in general, they are not worth your time or mental energy.

*note* here is an article on taking the mystery out of finding peak fall colors While this article is about “Early Fall Color,” here is an article about the quality of past peak color to balance things out.

Jeff Foliage Folger

Autumn is a state of mind more than a time of year – Jeff Foliage

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