WASHINGTON POST • October 11, 2021
Researchers have found estimating fall peak has become even trickier in recent decades. Warmer temperatures have delayed the onset of fall, pushing the peak of fall leaf season back as much as a week in some areas over the past seven decades. Extreme weather events have also abruptly curtailed recent seasons or caused the color of the leaves to become duller. “There has been and will be more variability year-to-year and more uncertainty,” said Andy Finton, a forest ecologist with The Nature Conservancy. “With climate change, it just adds more complexity to an already complex phenomenon.”