Fall foliage colors in Maine.
The explosion of leave color brilliant orange, red, yellow, brown and a zillion hues of green when the fall season rolls across Maine. Some years the leaf peak of mixed fall colors get robbed by high winds and the second bloom explosion never happens. Other fall seasons the crazy colors get to the peak detonate to achieve the pinnacle because winds do NOT huff and puff. Mother Nature controls the timing. Not you or I right?
In Maine, as one by one leaves slowly fall to the ground outside your front porch or tucked away inside a woods cabin.
Next year’s wood supply for the kitchen cook stove is processed in fall. The Fisher yellow plow is hooked back on the unregistered tired four wheel drive used for snow removal after a Maine snow storm. Canning and preserving happen in fall. Cider making all these apples in Maine is cranked out for healthy all natural drinks. We think of harvest, working for area farmers or getting the crop in on our own spreads. Whether large house gardens or rolling farm pasture fields, fall harvest and being outdoors energizes the soul. Getting prepared for the change of seasons as the days tick off living in Maine.
This year in Northern Maine, some hurricane weather map from the south did tail wind up in the belly of Vacationland.
Stripping some of the leaves before they could hit the high notes of fall colors. Prematurely pulled off the trees, these leaves of all colors line the dry countryside of Maine. The stream, brook and
river beds that lack water are now carpeted with fall leaves. Healing the scars and covering up the lack of water ravages due to the Maine drought of rain. Local Maine farmers are harvesting small yields. Worried about keeping what they do pull up and out of the ground safely packed away in storage bins. To draw from over the months ahead to pack, stack and head on down the pike to southern produce markets.
Growing food, making it farm to table is a noble Maine profession.
Fall is a busy time on a Maine fall farm acreage spread. You gotta eat. You and I are what we eat and knowing where the food came from is key. Grow your own takes away the mystery of how it was grown, where it is from and what it was treated with or not.
This year, fall colors that are usually a big draw for vacation leaf peeking tourists is missing.
Their absence blamed on COVID19 hanging around in the background that derails the usual numbers faithfully flocking to Maine. But what about the leave colors? Let’s take a look at what the experts say about leaf color in Maine and all the variable. Does the dry fall in Maine weather conditions impact the foliage color intensity? A lot of how intense the colors are depends on what’s going on inside and around you in life.
Maine is all about being pretty much living outdoors all four seasons.
And the impact of whatever fall leave colors we get up here in Maine can ebb and flow higher due to how’s life treating you. Fall is hunters on the prowl and wildlife a little antsy. Just like COVID19 has made folks a tad edgy, the Maine wildlife get tired of hide and go seek to stay alive. To avoid being moved to a chest type freezer and part of body hoisted high and placed on a wall as a trophy reminder of the fall hunt up in Maine. Have you been to Maine to sneak a peak and play the hunting game of hide and seek chasing game birds, white tail deer, black bear and maybe a picked by lottery game of chance Maine moose?
I think the high notes of bright red and high voltage yellows are missing in fall foliage this year.
The lack of moisture did not crank up the color wheel brightness and lack of moisture is not the only variants. Temperatures can play a hand in what fall leave colors get rolled and displayed too.
Chilly evenings, cool mornings are part of the leave color recipe.
As we warm our hands and heart by open fire pits. We start thinking of winter snowmobile trails, getting on a sled and riding to places you can not get to by car. Where a blanket of new white snow is the roadway and carefully groomed to ease the in and out to access the wonders of Maine not everyone gets to experience.
The farmer’s almanac says just light affects fall leave colors.
The Maine forest is inhabited by lots of tree species. Each type of tree around us in Maine has its own sheet music to follow when fall happens. Yellow and orange that dominate the color scheme are the instrument of certain tree types.
The scarlet and variations of green hues are the product of other timber variety out in the Maine woods.
And it is not just trees that Jack Frost uses to change up the color scheme of nature’s surroundings up here in Maine. Bushes chime in with adapted colors as their contribution to the rich fall colors in Maine. We can all agree that fall foliage is dependent on chemistry to happen. Day length and temperatures are a big catalyst for Maine’s fall leave colors. These two factors provide the memo to trees to get ready for winter. To back off the summer food making and shift it up.
Stop the production of green chlorophyll and prepare for snow fall and let go of your leaves boys and girls.
The chemicals carotenoids and anthocysnins roll in to rush to the tips of all the tree limbs that cause the red, orange, yellows and maroon color shades. The sky color can impact what you get for the fall leave foliage experience too. Just like wind can strip trees of leaves to display colors of any kind, the cobalt blue or meh gray and dirty white shades of the sky create the help or hurt canvas of fall leave display intensity.
I’ll tell you one other variable in fall colors in Maine is the display around the Maine waterfront.
Take a smooth as glass ripple free lake to reflect whatever fall colors you do get. That mirror adds to the fall leave color dimension and spreads the colors in a natural amplification.Warm weather temperatures across Maine impacted our fall leave colors this year. The warmer than normal degree readings and lack of dips into cold sections of the thermometer early and late in the day made for more plain jane fall colors. Or the coronovirus impacting everyone’s life could be part of the problem.
Mainer’s are wondering about how do you safely socially distance trick or treat in the approaching Halloween ahead?
Worried if school and sporting schedules will hold and continue. It all depends on the virus spiking or not in rural small town Maine where we seem to have more of a fighting survival chance. Cheers (clinking cold mugs of freshly pressed apple cider and pumpkin flavored local micro brews) Maine is wonderful any season for any reason. Those that work virtually and remote online up in Maine are happy about the continued warm temperatures. But also thinking ahead and wondering how winter will treat them as they hunker down and telecommute up here in Vacationland.
Fall foliage colors in Maine.
Thank you for stopping by the Me In Maine blog post today! Where to visit, when to come to Maine for the peak leave colors. What does history say on the peak colors of fall in Maine trend? It is indicating this weekend is peak leave color time for Northern Maine’s section seven. Check the link for more on the leave colors of fall foliage in Maine.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA