CLEVELAND — It's that magical time of year in Northeast Ohio when the weather gets cooler and our leaves start changing into the vibrant hues of red, orange and yellow, sending us all into the car to capture the magic of the fall colors while we can.
With the recent drought, how does this year's fall color look? When will the fall colors peak in our area?
EXPECTED PEAK TIME FOR FALL COLORS
"I expect the peak to be just a tad later than usual around here," Wintz says. "We'll continue to see leaves changing next week and we should be near peak in two weeks. By late October we should be in peak with the best color."
Timing also varies with outlying areas away from the city seeing color first. The reason, Wintz explains, is because they get cooler at night versus the city.
DROUGHT IMPACT?
"The recent drought does impact our fall color, but that impact has already been felt," explains 3News' Senior Meteorologist Matt Wintz. "Many trees have already dropped their leaves and those trees are obviously out of the picture for fall colors."
Wintz also says that the recent rain will help the trees that still have green leaves on them to produce those typical vibrant colors.
"This fall will still be colorful," he continues. "We will just have less trees with leaves to show off that color."
He also points out that these cooler temperatures and loss of daylight both help to naturally trigger the fall colors. Add cool mornings with sun-filled days and we can produce some truly colorful landscape around here.