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With Cold Front, ‘Fall Color Guy’ at ASU Expects Color Change To Quicken in Next Two Weeks

This tree along the Greenway Trail in Boone showed some color earlier than most. Photo by Jesse Wood
This tree along the Greenway Trail in Boone showed some color earlier than most. Photo by Jesse Wood

By Jesse Wood

ASU Biology Professor Howard Neufeld, also known as the “Fall Color Guy,” started posting fall color reports earlier this month.

In his latest fall color report (Sept. 13), Neufeld wrote that he expects to see “color changes pick up in the next two weeks.” In his forecast, he cited the current cold front that we’ve experienced as temperatures have dipped into the 40s and even 30 in some parts of the High Country.

“Still green out there! But! This morning it was 48 F at my house, and probably several degrees colder at the higher elevations on the Blue Ridge Parkway,” Neufeld posted on Sunday. “A cool front has moved in and dropped temperatures substantially, which is good for fall color development. But there hasn’t been much change in the leaves since last week, although a few plants are showing color prominently now, especially up on the ridges near Grandfather Mountain.”

Neufeld noted that planted red maples are starting to show their vibrant red colors along with sourwoods and dogwoods.

“On the Rough Ridge trail [on the Blue Ridge Parkway], the huckleberries are starting to turn deep red … [and] Chestnuts (Aesculus octandra, not American chestnut) are dropping their leaves now, and are always among the first trees to do so each fall,” Neufeld wrote.

Read the entire report on Neufeld’s “Fall Color Guy” Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FallColorGuy/timeline?ref=page_internal