Drought Is Coming for Leaf-Peepers

Leaf-peeping season has arrived in the Northeast and beyond, but weeks of drought have muted this year's autumn colors and sent leaves fluttering to the ground earlier than usual. Soaking in the fall foliage is an annual tradition in the New England states as well as areas such as the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, and Upper Peninsula of Michigan. As the days shorten and temps drop, chlorophyll in leaves breaks down, and they turn to the autumn tones of yellow, orange, and red. But dry weather in summer and fall can change all that because the lack of water causes leaves to brown and fall more quickly, explains the AP. That's happening this year, as more than 40% of the country was considered to be in a drought in early October, according to the US Drought Monitor.

That's more than twice the average, said Brad Rippey, a US Department of Agriculture meteorologist and an author of the drought monitor. Drought has hit the Northeast and western US especially hard. It all adds up to fewer leaves to peep. "I think it might be a little bit of a short and less colorful season, for the most part," Rippey said. "The color is just not going to be there this year for some hillsides."

Still, while climate change is indeed stressing forests with severe weather and heat waves, autumn in New England remains a beautiful time of year to experience the wonderment of forest ecosystems firsthand, said Andy Finton, senior conservation ecologist with the Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts. "Our trees and our forests have an inherent resilience," Finton said. "They are still very resilient, and I am constantly surprised at how wonderful the fall season is despite these stresses."

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The tourism business built around leaf peeping has also proven resilient. At the Mills Falls Resort Collection at the Lake in Meredith, New Hampshire, general manager Barbara Beckwith said business is good at the four inns that have 170 rooms. The number of Canadian tourists is down, Beckwith acknowledged, but she said that has been made up with domestic leaf peepers, mostly from New England.