Poor showing for fall colours

Warmer weather has been blamed for less than impressive Fall foliage in New England. According to Dave Gram, writing in the Buffalo News:

Forested hillsides usually riotous with reds, oranges and yellows have shown their colors only grudgingly in recent years, with many trees going straight from the dull green of late summer to the rust-brown of late fall with barely a stop at a brighter hue.

“It’s nothing like it used to be,” said University of Vermont plant biologist Tom Vogelmann, a Vermont native.

He says autumn has become too warm to elicit New England’s richest colors.

While I’m no expert on this, the idea seems intuitively appealing. Brilliant Fall colours are a feature of the Great Lakes region – down here, leave tend to go from green to brown, often with only the slightest nod to yellows and reds. Unfortunately, “intuitively appealing” arguments can be misleading – after all, many people are attracted to creationism for just that reason.

[Read the rest of my post at Poor showing for fall colours]