Muted Colors & Small Leaves

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Oct 17, 2005 12:01PM

This weekend might have had the most perfect autumn weather - warm with a slight chill in the air, sunny, fresh, crisp breeze - but if you looked around and noticed there's not much to see as far as color in the trees, you're not the only one. It seems like the leaves are going from green on the tree to brown on the ground.

Scientists say it's because it's been a stressful year for trees in northeastern Illinois. This summer we experienced a drought, which was great for our summer BBQ plans and outdoor baseball games (go Sox!), but was not so great for the trees. Undernourished trees around here either lost their leaves months ago or else the leaves on them only grew a fraction of what they'd grow normally. On other trees the leaves are so weak that they're blowing off in the first stiff breeze that comes by.

From March to September, O'Hare recorded only about 13 inches of rain - 12 inches below normal. Eep! Trees' colors are dependant upon how much water they got.. so if you've got a tree in your backyard that you watered all summer long and is now displaying a bright exhibit of colors, you might be able to start charging admission!

If you've seen any good colors around the city or the state, leave a comment. It'd be nice to see some leaves before this winter rolls in!

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