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Latest Fall Color Report: ‘Leaf Lookers, Hang in There,’ Higher Elevations Should See Turning Next Two Weeks

By Jesse Wood

Sept. 2, 2014. ASU Professor of Biology Dr. Howard Neufeld, also known as the “Fall Color Guy,” hasn’t had much to update in the past two weeks regarding his fall color reports.

On Aug. 26, Grandfather Mountain posted this photo on its Facebook page with the caption: I spy something orange in MacRae Meadows! #fallcolor
On Aug. 26, Grandfather Mountain posted this photo on its Facebook page with the caption: I spy something orange in MacRae Meadows! #fallcolor

“This past week, the weather has moved back to a more normal pattern for this time of year and we’re back to our usual ‘dog days’ of August. As a result, there is not much to report with respect to fall colors aside from what I wrote last week. The forests here are still very green,” Neufeld wrote on Sunday.

He mentioned that Jesse Pope, director of education and natural resources at Grandfather Mountain, noted that many of the maple trees above 4,800 feet have shed 50 percent of its foliage already and for those leaves that haven’t fallen off, “some more leaf change on red maples” have occurred.

“Not sure what’s going on there. No other trees are changing drastically yet. The buckeyes are starting to show just a smidge of color but nothing too drastic. I think we are still a couple weeks out from any real noticeable changes here at Grandfather,” Pope said, according to Neufeld.

Neufeld also noted that Kathy Mathews of Western Carolina University and Jonathan Horton of UNC-Asheville have reported little progress for fall colors in and around Asheville and Culllowhee.

“So, leaf lookers, hang in there. Over the next two weeks, we should begin to see trees turning at the highest elevations (5,000 feet or so) and then watch it progress downwards each week,” Neufeld wrote.

See the links below for entire weekly color reports, which also feature fascinating, in-depth science essays on trees in each report.

Follow the Fall Color Guy on Facebook here, or check out his weekly reports on an App State homepage.

Read prior report where Neufeld noted that “this may turn out to be one of our more unusual and interesting autumns.”