Heat domes, droughts, smoky skies, tropical deluges: After a record-breaking summer of extreme weather events, dare we dream of crisp nights, cozy sweaters and the colors of fall? “This summer really was a chaotic mix of record wettest and record driest, and fall colors will reflect that,” said Austin Rempel, director of forest restoration at American Forests, a nonprofit forestry organization. The Northeast and parts of the northern Rockies and Southern California had extremely wet summers, while the Southwest had one of its driest on record, he said. That stress can make trees lose their leaves earlier, but it can also make the leaf color “really pop,” said Tara L. Bal, a forestry professor at Michigan Tech. When leaves and trees are stressed, she explained, “the bright reds and oranges and yellows actually are stronger.”Just how vivid those leaves are depends on the right combination of cool and dry fall weather starting in mid-September, when colors start to change in the West and Northeast, and through late October, when they are at their prime in the Midwest and the Southeast.

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Persons: ”, Austin Rempel, Tara L Organizations: Forests, Rockies, Michigan Tech Locations: Southern California, Southwest, West, Midwest