After a summer that drenched and parched Pennsylvania for months at a time, the commonwealth is experiencing into an earlier-than-usual leaf-peeping season.
“We saw color earlier this year than we have in perhaps a decade,” said Ryan Reed, a natural resource program specialist at the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The department released its first foliage report of the season Thursday.
But changes to the leaves will differ across Centre County, with its low valleys, high ridges and four different state forests. Here’s everything you need to know about foliage heading into the coziest time of the year.
Weather extremes sped up the leaf change
This year’s weather has been a mixed bag for Centre County’s trees, and it’s manifesting in the color of their leaves.
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Early summer brought a torrent of rainfall across Pennsylvania, but conditions flipped by August, when areas saw what Reed described as “very drought-like conditions” in much of the commonwealth.
Those extremes set the stage for an accelerated start to fall color.
“You had early leaf drop with some sensitive trees, maybe along the edges, and maybe younger trees that are more exposed,” Reed said.
While the season’s start came sooner than Pennsylvanians may be accustomed to, Reed said the timing is in line with historical averages.
“Fall foliage happened sooner 40 or 50 years ago,” he said.
A map from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources shows fall foliage projections by county through Oct. 1.
If not for recent rain, the season could have ended quickly, however.
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“We were heading quickly towards a scenario where the leaves were just browning up and falling off,” said Eric Burkhart, a teaching professor in Penn State’s forestry department. “It was just too dry.”
Burkhart noted the excessive rain early in the season could cause fungal and bacterial growth on the leaves, even during the dry spell. The pathogens could cause the leaves to show less color.
“You’ll see maybe some trees have spots all over their leaves and stuff,” he said. “Well, that’s some of those pathogens, and that means that that tree is probably not going to get as vibrant a color.”
Terrain and tree type make a difference
If you make the steep climb to Philipsburg from the Bald Eagle Valley during peak foliage, you might see less vibrant color the higher you go. There’s a reason for that.
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“On our ridge tops, we see a lot of our oaks and hickories present,” Burkhart explained. On ridge tops in the area, chestnut oaks are dominant. “In terms of the fall color, many of the oak species, including chestnut oak, are not very vibrant colored. They might get a dull yellow to orangish brown at best.”
By contrast, the richer valleys host species like sugar maples, which can produce fiery oranges during peak foliage.
Where the trees grow matters. Burkhart said the sugar maples in his yard “have yet to produce even a single season of good, vibrant coloration” because he lives on a dry hilltop.
That means the best leaf-peeping in Centre County depends not just on timing, but terrain. Early bursts of color often appear along the sun-baked ridges and roadsides, while the valleys and shaded interior forests may peak later, with richer hues.
When to expect the best fall colors in central PA in 2025
For now, Centre County’s trees are just starting to get color, according to the DCNR’s fall foliage report. Brighter days are coming soon, if typical weather patterns — cool temperatures and good moisture — hold.
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“I would say certainly by the end of the first week of October, you should really start seeing some fantastic color, as long as it follows a fairly normal progression,” Reed said.
He added that by October’s midpoint, “you can guarantee that you’re going to find some beautiful color in Centre County.” The commonwealth’s cooler northern reaches are already well on their way to peak colors, including neighboring Clinton County.
Extreme weather can put a quick end to leaf peeping season, though. A couple of weeks of unseasonably warm weather could stall coloration, or remnants of a tropical storm can blow the leaves away.
“You get 50- and 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts, heavy rain, and it’s all gone,” Reed said.
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Climate change adds unpredictability.
“We’ve been experiencing these extremes,” Burkhart said, such as summer droughts that stress trees. Those swings can make the season more uneven year to year.
Even still, the trees provide a spectacle.
“Plant blindness is something that recent generations of folks are kind of characterized by, which is to say that we often use the green world as kind of a backdrop to the rest of our lives, and don’t really think much about it,” Burkhart said. But when “the whole mountainside starts to look like a bag of Skittles and it’s all lit up in all these bright colors, then people start to think about that a little bit.”
[SRC] https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/fall-colors-arrived-quickly-central-090000048.html
