Foliage Update: Foliage Season Ready to Break Out

With Labor Day in the rearview mirror and both professional and college football seasons underway, autumn is quickly upon us. Over the next couple of months, the fall foliage season will take off like a rocket. At this point, few if any colors are seen across the country, as the warmer weather of the summer remains intact.

Astronomically, the first day of fall will be September 22, when the sun`s perpendicular rays cross the equator. Each day is getting shorter, and this causes a chemical reaction in the leaves that leads to the color changing. As days become cooler and shorter, the trees ability to make chlorophyll, a pigment that keeps the leaves green, decreases and causes the leaves to become red, orange and purple.

Even the areas that climatologically see their first colors are still in a holding pattern. These locations, in the rural parts of Minnesota have been party to warm temperatures across the Upper Midwest. Similarly, most of the Northeast has yet to get into much of the foliage season.

Over the course of the autumn, WeatherBug Meteorologists will provide an outlook on the foliage conditions across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. This will include an updated map of conditions and details of these great colors. WeatherBug will also give some suggestions of roads to take for a leaf-peeping road trip, and a forecast for the weekend so you can know what to expect as you visit the colors.

Be sure to check your WeatherBug every week throughout the season to find out which region is seeing the best colors.