Oct 17, 2018 3 min read

What are you wearing right now? That’s not meant to be a creepy question, because you may be in your pajamas if it’s first thing in the morning. The real question is whether those pajamas are summer shorties or fall flannels. While you may have put away your flip-flops for the season, the weather is still flip-flopping from summer to fall temperatures and then back again. September wound up more than 7 degrees warmer than normal for Pittsburgh, and then we felt a brief cooldown. October started off with highs right back up there in the 70s and 80s, which is more than 10 degrees warmer than our average high for this time of year. The nights didn’t cool off, either, until late last week and now we’re finally experiencing seasonable temperatures.

I still had my summer flower pots and porch swing out and a beachy welcome sign on the door until late last week. While my neighbors had adorned their porches with pumpkins and hay bales for fall harvest season, I just couldn’t do it when I was still sweating and cutting the grass. Once the mercury plunged, I finally got that fall fever, took in my geraniums and put up my “Happy Halloween!” sign.

While fans of warm weather and haters of snow and all things winter may be dancing in the streets, many people have been asking what this will do to our fall foliage this year. We normally near peak leaf-peeping season right around now, but the prolonged warmth has pushed Mother Nature’s timeline back a bit. Northern and northeastern counties in Pennsylvania (north of Interstate 80) are finally expecting peak leaf color starting this week. Here at home, it may be another two weeks until we see maximum oranges, reds and golds on the trees. The warm weather slows the change of leaf color because the first frost is later than normal (usually early to mid-October for our region.) That frost signals the trees to turn off fuel for the leaves and starts breaking down the leaves’ chlorophyll. That lack of chlorophyll is what makes the leaves begin to change color.

The good news for fall foliage fans is plenty of sunshine and cool nights can lead to very bright colors. Although the viewing season will likely wind up being shorter and will start later this year, if we get some cool nights and continued sunshine that could be the recipe for a brilliant yet abbreviated show. If temperatures stay warm, however, colors could trend toward the dull side.

Either way, I’ll be looking to the trees in the next few weeks for some pretty colors and I think I’m finally ready to put away the lawnmower and put out a pumpkin. No, I’m not waxing my skis yet and I hope the snow shovel gathers dust for a while!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.