News - Blogs - Drought can hinder the best fall colors

Drought can hinder the best fall colors
Published: 10/17/2011 1:40 PM
Last Modified: 10/17/2011 2:24 PM

Fallen maple leaves carpet a lawn across the street from the First Baptist Church of Kingfield, Maine, Sept. 30. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The leaves on the trees have taken on their fall colors as seen over a stream Friday, Oct. 14, 2011 near Kingston, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

You may not have guessed it Sunday, when the high temperature reached 91 degrees in Tulsa, but it is indeed fall.

Well, hold on, because we’re about to get a stark reminder this week.

A big cold front is set to blow through tonight, dropping forecast highs by 20 degrees, and bringing the first chance of a frost or even a freeze in some areas.

It will bring some rain, most likely after midnight tonight. Not a lot, but some. And it could be significant rains in storms.

But, it still remains dry, which is not good for fall foliage.

I wrote Sunday about foliage road trips in eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The vibrancy of the changing leaves may be somewhat limited this year because of the drought conditions we’re experiencing.

As nights lengthen, a layer of cells begins to develop in the leaves, cutting off the transfer of materials between the leaf and the branch, including chlorophyll, which gives the leaf that green color during the growing season.

Chlorophyll production in the leaf slows and eventually stops and the green color fades, highlighting the other pigments in the leaf that provide the yellows, reds, purples and browns of fall.

In a drought during the growing season, that layer of cells can form early, causing the leaves to fall before they reach their full color potential. That makes for a sad fall.

However, so far this autumn has been dry, cool and sunny, which all are conducive to producing bright fall colors. So if the leaves can hang on for a few more weeks, eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas could be in for a more colorful than expected fall.

--Jerry Wofford

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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