Fall foliage calendar 2023

Hey there, I'm WVTM 13. Meteorologist Briley Brown. It is *** Tuesday evening. It is September 12 and I wanted to talk to you *** little bit about fall foliage. And when we expect to see the leaves change color here in central Alabama, I know many of us are ready for that cool crisp fall air. It is not here yet. In fact, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa topped out at 95 five degrees today. The last time we were that hot was August 27th. I went back and looked so we should not be experiencing that type of heat at this time of year. But we are, we have *** cold front moving through now that brings *** couple of showers and storms this evening. And then we get another front to come through into the weekend. And so I think we are gradually getting in there. I think that the 90 degree heat may be behind us for the rest of this year. So that's what we're hoping. But let's get into it. Let me tell you when you can expect all the changes to take place and that kind of thing. So we'll start with fall itself according to the meteorological calendar, it began on September 1st. But we look at the astronomical cald and we consider the sun angle and the seasons as the earth rotates on its axis. We're looking at September 23rd for fall or autumn to begin. And that's when the sun shines directly on the equator. And we have equal amounts of daylight and equal amounts of darkness at night. And so going forward, you know, it's *** process to get the leaves to change. It doesn't happen overnight and *** lot of meteorological conditions can either inhibit or help these things happen quicker. So right now, we're looking at about four weeks until we see just some patchy color and that would be the second week of October. So we have *** little while before we start to see and notice some color change. But let me tell you kind of what we're looking at in terms of the process and how our weather has affected the time at which this may happen. So we had *** really wet month of August and then September got here and we didn't see much rain and even though we aren't nearing drought conditions here right now, um *** lack of adequate rainfall can cause the trees not to be healthy and they lose nutrients. And when that happens, that can cause leaves to shed their leaves early. And with that, you don't see as good of *** color change. And so that could be *** possible thing that we'll be looking at also when you get *** really warm period during the season of fall, that can also lower the intensity or mute the colors. But we'll go ahead and look at the sequence and who gets the leaves changing first. If you're traveling up to the Smoky Mountains early for fall, you may can see *** leave change *** little earlier than if you are here at home in central Alabama. So as you know, annual fall foliage occurs at different times in different places across the country. And peak foliage varies, it can vary across the state and you'll see that here in just *** minute. And the reason why there's many reasons why, but one, we'll talk about the amount of daylight that we see. Um, chlorophyll is reduced when there's less sunlight and chlorophyll keeps the leaves green and that type of thing. So areas that don't see as much sunlight areas that have the shorter days are likely to see their leaves change color quicker than you would in other areas. So it looks like this is today, is September 12th. We'll skip on down to, um, now September 12th, September 13th, eastern Tennessee starts to see some patchy color change about this time of year. And in the latter part of September, you start to see other places. Um, and also I'll mention higher elevations, the tallest trees actually change color first. So that's something that you can make note of, but you could see that areas of higher elevation, uh, toward the northern portion of the country, their leaves begin to change color first. But by the latter part of September, if you're in east East Tennessee, Asheville, Severeville, um, Severeville, excuse me, you're looking at, um, some partial leave change if you're taking *** trip up that direction and then, uh, towards the very end, you can see spots Severeville, Ashville, looking at peak, um, foilage in that time of year. So again, if you're traveling, just make note, you might see, you see some pretty scenery changes. By that time, if you're, um, in Tennessee, towards the beginning of October, we start to see it gradually make its way south. You could see some patchy discoloration in the leaves, um, for areas in northeast Alabama, that's places like Dekalb County up to Huntsville, even, uh, parts of County and, uh, Cherokee County. And then by the second week of October, which is when I told you that we should start seeing some color changes. We should be on track to start seeing some patchy, um, some patchy color changes, but, you know, it's not, it's not gonna be peak, um, until really later in the season. So October 18th, we're looking at, um, we'll see partial full coverage changes and again, colors could be *** little bit muted, um, but they'll still be, they'll, you'll still be able to tell it's not like that, you're gonna go *** season without seeing the leaves change color. They just, um, may be *** little bit muted. And, uh, by the latter part of October, that's when we near peak fall foliage here in central Alabama. And then look up toward the northern portion of the state and then east Tennessee places like Asheville, they're past peak. So when we're just peaking and seeing, um, the vibrant fall colors places in East Tennessee and then further up, um Northeast United States, they're really past the peak of their changes and we say warmer here longer. So that's another thing. The beginning of November, we are at peak for sure. And then towards the latter part, um into November, middle, November, the latter part of November, we're past the peak and that's when the leaves, you won't really see many on the trees. And um, we start to get winter here and even if we have *** mild winter, that's still gonna be um the time when you see the leaves coming off the trees. So let me get back on here. I hope that this was helpful and um something that you enjoy, something that you learned something from and um, we'll just keep you updated.