Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Western New York's landscape is beginning to pop with fall colors. For some trees, it's an earlier leaf peeping season, due to a hot, dry summer.
"The drought is a stressor on trees, no doubt about it," said WKBW meteorologist Andy Parker on WBEN. "What you'll notice is that some trees wear that stress a little more than others, such as Beech and Birch trees. You're already seeing some crinkling and browning of the leaves."
But Parker noted the process by which the leaves change is independent of whether it's wet or not.
"It has a lot to do with the sun and the cool nights. The trees are starting to retract the chlorophyll, (the pigment that gives them their color)," Parker explained." The nutrients in the leaves are being pulled back into the tree so it can prepare for next season. When you have cool nights, which we had in early September, it locks off the process of the chlorophyll coming out of the leaf."
Chlorophyll absorbs sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to create sugars, giving leaves their green color because it reflects green light.
"During our run with sunny days, trees were still producing sugars but the cool nights were restricting those sugars from being drawn out of the leaf. When the Chlorophyll begins to act you see more purples, reds and oranges. The less chlorophyll you have, the easier it is for the tree to extract it, and it brings out more yellows," Parker elaborated.
Every year, Parker says the changing of the leaves can be so different.
"If you have a cloudy, wet, mild fall, it may prolong fall. But this one looks like it's beginning early," he said.
Parker also notes that our recent run of sunny days and cool nights will serve to produce some brighter colors this fall.