Fall foliage season is right around the corner. But will the summer's lack of rain impact the colors we see on trees?
How colorful a tree gets is a complex question. Mark Brand said that first, there's the issue of water.
"Where we've had the very extremely dry areas, we're going to get early leaf drop," he said. "There's a lot of leaf scorch, leaves that have basically dried up. And all of those types of symptoms are going to result in less color on the tree."
Brand is a professor of horticulture at UConn. During the last three months, Connecticut's had about 75 percent of its normal precipitation. It's not horrible, but it's definitely not great, considering a prior dry spring and winter with minimal snowpack.
"Many of the birch, in particular, are already turning yellow and I think once we get any significant rain those leaves are going to come off the plants pretty fast," Brand said.
In an email, Graeme Berlyn from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies said "wind storms can blow off the leaves before they have a chance to color up."
Brand said there are also issues with insects like the gypsy moth, which hit patches of the state earlier this year -- munching on leaves and forcing plants to re-grow their shoots later in the summer.
"They probably will develop fall color but it might be a little less dynamic than usual and it probably will occur a little bit later," said Brand.
Connecticut got a lot of sun this summer, which can be good for color. In addition to birch trees, Brand said he's also starting to see colors start in on red maples and sugar maples. He said fall colors in Connecticut usually peak during the second half of October.
