Fall colors: A bit dull and muted
Coming off the bike trail in Ohiopyle today, I noticed three things. The mountains are still very green. It is almost the third week in October and the dominate color is green.
Usually by this time of the month, the show is over in the mountains and on its way to the lower elevations. Lots of sunny days, warm temperatures and a few nice rains have conspired to keep the growing season alive, and Mother Nature is continuing to produce lots of green chlorophyll.
There are a few pockets of color; however, the maples have already lost a lot of their leaves and this fact will probably lead to a muted color landscape for the remaining show of autumn glory.
The second thing I noticed was the amount of leaves already down on the ground. Large pockets of bare landscape are noticeable as you travel the mountain roads.
Lastly, the trees with leaves remaining are just not very colorful. I am hopeful that with the cool mornings and sunny pleasant Indian summer days we have been experiencing, the show in the lower elevations may be a bit more colorful.
Speaking of those cooler mornings, temperatures earlier this week dropped into the upper twenties over much of the mountain area and lower elevations saw many readings in the low 30s.
Frost and even a freeze also accompanied the cold temperatures. Frost occurs when the temperature drops to the freezing mark and coats plants with a thin coating of ice crystals. A freeze occurs when the temperature stays below freezing for a prolonged period and the plant actually freezes.
Many plants can handle a bit of frost, but a freeze usually spells the end of the plants growth for this season.
Average early morning temperatures the area for late October are around 40 degrees. Daytime highs should be in the low 60s. Records are 16 degrees for on October 20, 1992, and 85 degrees on the October 27, 1947.
Snow is unlikely in October, but it has happened on a number of occasions.
The earliest snow was on October 4, 1974, when a coating appeared on roof tops and grassy areas. Several inches fell in the mountains.
On the October 27, just about a half inch fell in the lower elevations in 1957.
The Halloween snowstorm of 1993 brought several inches of snow to most of Western Pennsylvania including 8 inches in Pittsburgh and 9 inches in our mountains east of Uniontown. Just a few years ago, Hurricane Sandy on its way to New York and New Jersey wreaked havoc in the mountains of Western Maryland and Northern West Virginia with between 20 to 40 inches of snow.
Nine inches accumulated at our weather station in Chalk Hill.
There is still plenty of leaves to rake; however, you may want to dig out the old snow shovel just in case.