What an atypical foliage season we had in Philly

[triz]

Foliage was very atypical this year in my city (Philly).

Maples turned very early around October 20th (at least 10 days earlier than usual) and leaves dropped super quickly. Also, colors not great, with most red maples turning yellow rather than red and sugar maples not being very bright orange.

Then, the rest of the threes turned VERY late, ~10 days later than normal. And they are BEAUTIFUL. The oaks, that normally are brownish, are red and scarlet. Amazing.

The gums (I think they gums at least) are bright, vibrant red, and still with lots of leaves.

Normally, on November 15 it is pretty much stick season here. But not this year!

Did this happen in NE too?

[edmcguirk]

triz, I live in eastern Massachusetts, and we also had an outstanding year for colors in the oak trees. The reds and yellows were much more vibrant than normal. I have oak trees in my front yard, and from raking experience I can say that we also had a "way" above average year for acorns, I don't know if that is related or not. Our maple and beech trees turned color at a normal time, and the color was pretty good, and lasted a long time. We were lucky enough to still have mostly green leaves when the big wind storms hit around Columbus Day. Our oaks turned at a normal time, although they are almost all gone now. But definitely a very strong year for oak leave color. I took a last week of October drive up to the NEK to photograph larch trees, but on my drive up and back through central and southern New Hampshire I also noticed that it was a great year for oak leaf color there as well.

[triz]

Thanks Ed for your reply! That’s very interesting!

[loafer89]

We had a very colorful Fall foliage this year with the Oak trees. The peak foliage came about 7-10 days early, around October 26th.

OxBow, 10/26 with poor lighting:

[ctyanky]

Some may call it a "split season" but it turned out to be one of the best foliage seasons in years and very prolonged!

All of our leaves are down now in northern CT but I do love stick season nonetheless! You can see so far into the woods- stone walls, hidden lakes, ponds and streams that you could not see before with all the foliage. I even think the trees look beautiful as they are now, so much intricate architecture in the branches and limbs right up to the bare canopies. The dried leaves smell so good! Time to appreciate and find the beauty in each season. We were lucky to have experienced such a stellar 2019 fall foliage year in Vermont and all of New England!