Well, we survived the wind this weekend and so did most of the leaves. Due to the later timing of this season, the trees did not lose nearly as many leaves in the wind gusts as they would have if color was further progressed. The weather has been cooler and color is moving along fairly rapidly now. Fall Color Guy, Dr. Howard Neufeld, is forecasting peak color at 3,000-4,500′ elevations this weekend into next week. He expects high color to continue into the next weekend and then anticipates that the color will move to lower elevations after that. For reference, Blowing Rock is at about 3600 feet in elevation.
We’re having some cooler evenings and clearer days this coming week so we expect that the color will keep on progressing nicely. There is just a 50% chance of rain on Friday, and the rest of the week looks like it will be nice leaf viewing weather!
We are still getting a decent showing from lots of Maple and Beech trees which were early turners, as usual. Sourwood and Sassafras have joined the party in recent days, bringing even more color. Many mature Oak trees are still mostly green and they tend to change later in the season. This is one of the reasons our season stretches so long! The area is very diverse in the types of plants and trees growing, and they often change color at different times.