Climate change robbing our Fall color

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.fontenelleforest.org/

Marta and I live next to Fontenelle Forest. It's on the other side of our back fence. Most of the trees around us are hackberry and oak. About three weeks ago ALL the leaves on the hackberrys started turning brown. A week later the leaves started falling. Most of them are already down. We were told flat out climate change is the reason.

A good part of the Fall colors won't be there to be enjoyed. :cry: One of life's simple pleasures.

[ClarkUSA]

1. Has it been very dry? This happened last year to some of our larger trees here on the East Coast.

This year, though, we've escaped drought, so the trees look good and green despite the heat.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Normal rain until 3-4 weeks ago

The leaves started to turn before the heatwave hit. Our County agent has some good info on the weather patterns and climate change for our area.

[ClarkUSA]

5. That's bad. Good to hear re: the coming rain. That will help trees bulk up for the winter.

Last summer, we got one good rain from mid- June to September. By mid-September, most of our property's large trees had defoliated. Only a grand old sugar maple changed color, although not as well as years past.

This year, despite the heat, we've been getting brief bouts of torrential rain, so all the trees look green, as does our lawn, which we've left a bit long to protect the thatch from burning out.

[CreekDog]

3. Omaha temperatures this summer mean evaportranspiration is higher than normal

so while the precip in July was about 15% below normal, the temperatures in June and July were a fair amount higher than normal. i don't know if it's far enough above normal to be a stressor, but plants lose more moisture when it's hot --and it's been hot.

so, when you look at the rain and notice it's 100% of normal, but the temperatures are running 5-10F above normal all summer --plants and trees aren't experiencing a normal summer moisture-wise.

[ClarkUSA]

6. Good point.

[nevergiveup]

4. Chicago broke an all time record high for rainfall in July.

Many of my outside plants got root-rot. We live in strange times.