The fall colors are unbelievably beautiful this year. And it’s happening at the “normal” time of the year in Northwest Ohio. The newspaper article* pointed out the conditions are right for vivid colors: a dry finish of summer, sunny early fall days and crisp nights,” per the interviewed metrologist* which helped make the tree colors on time this year. Usually the peak is in between the 2nd week and end of October.
In most of the past fifteen years the global warming or regional warming or local temperature and/or microclimates or whatever has contributed to most trees not changing or losing leaves until November.
We have lived in the manufactured home park called Meadows of Perrysburg since 2020 that has mostly Bradford Pears trees.
Bradford Pears are not a favorite tree of mine, but I only recently found out they are imported and recently declared invasive. The past two autumns their leaves were the last to change and they were still green in December.
This year even they are turning maroon at this time along with the newer red maples in the park.
Photos are below.
Twenty eight years ago my wife Barb and I got married on October 15th. Our overnight stop on the way to the Smokey Mountains was at an Ohio State park near Cincinnati in southern Ohio. We took lots of pictures and video. Later we discovered the camera had no film! We said it’s okay we will stop there on the way back about 9 days later. We arrived to re-create the photos and nearly all the colors were gone. We had video of the same scenes but we were quite disappointed.
So I do have specific memories from 1994 and earlier of the “normal” fall colors happening around here during the last three weeks of October.
I also have a photo of a maple tree fully covered in red leaves taken on November 20, 2005, one of the first time noticing autumn colors a little or alot late. I wish I could put my hands on that photo but it was pre-camera cell phones.
So if you can, check out the leaf colors going south from Toledo, Ohio area this year before they are gone.
*The Toledo Blade October 20, 2022
Gary Lovell
Copyright. 2022
Unusual Perspectives 