The fall foliage for 2024

We’re into the very early stages of the fall season and the beauty of the Inland Northwest is being enhanced by the annual fall foliage. Some of the best displays of color should be from now through the middle of October.

During this time of year, a mixture of reds, purples, oranges and especially yellows will dot the landscape. Some of the trees that are common in the Pacific Northwest include the vine maples, which provide hues of yellow, orange and red and are often found along many of the hiking trails.

According to an article in Fine Gardening, the Elegans Japanese cedar will also produce some nice color at this time of year in the Northwest. The larch and aspen trees will provide yellow and gold colors, which often helps to make for spectacular displays. The Mandarin Jewel Kousa dogwood, Sunsation magnolia, and Golden Bear Tower Persian ironwood will feature an array of yellows, reds and orange-colored leaves in the fall.

Here in North Idaho, the peak color this year is currently happening across the extreme northern part of the state. This may be a bit earlier than usual due to summer drought as the trees will likely lose their leaves sooner than average. In the Coeur d’Alene region, the peak colors are forecast to be during the last week of this month and into the first week of October.

In southern Idaho, the peak season is expected around early to mid October. Boise is often referred to as “The City of Trees,” and will often showcase very colorful displays, especially at the Idaho Botanical Garden. Many have said that the northern Cascades will have some of the most beautiful displays of color at the end of September.

There is a website, www.smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map, that has a good fall foliage map for the entire country. At this time of year, it’s continuously updated to provide the best times to view the fall foliage. If you’re looking to see the fall colors near their current peak, some recommend the Idaho Section of the International Selkirk Loop, which goes through Priest River, Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry. The Pend Oreille National Scenic Byway is another good place to see the fall colors.

In the spring and summer months, the green leaves serve as food factories for the tree’s growth. This food-making process takes place in the leaf which contains a chemical called chlorophyll. This amazing chemical absorbs energy from sunlight that is used to transform carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates, like sugars and starch. Chlorophyll also gives the leaf its green color.

As we move through the early fall season, changes in daylight hours and cooler temperatures result in the leaves stopping their food-making process. The chlorophyll breaks down and the leaf’s green color disappears. The other colors of red, orange and yellow pigments in the leaf now become visible making for spectacular displays before the leaves eventually fall off the trees. Sugar maples and birch trees often show the most array of colors at this time of year.

For the best fall foliage, the trees usually need moisture during the summer season. Extended periods of abnormal dryness, such as the recent summer, will often lead to leaves prematurely falling off trees and changing colors sooner than normal, which is expected again this year. The foliage is the most spectacular when there are also sunny days and cool nights in the late summer and early fall. The best colors are from trees that are less stressed. The lack of water in the summer will often lead to more stress for trees, so the fall colors may not be quite as brilliant. However, despite the dry summer season, we should still have some spectacular displays across the region.

In terms of our local weather, a brief warm spell is expected over the next several days before highs cool down into the 60s at the end of the week. Despite the chance of scattered showers late this week, it’s likely we’ll have a third month in a row with below-average moisture across the Inland Northwest. The drier-than-normal weather pattern is expected to continue into early October. But we will likely flip to the wetter side of the meteorological scale later next month and into November.

Speaking of hot and dry summers, it was pretty hot across much of the U.S. last month. Many stations across the country broke heat records for August. In fact, according to NOAA, it was the fourth hottest summer in history as the average temperature was 74 degrees last month, which was 1.9 degrees above average. Florida reported its second warmest August while Texas and New Mexico had their third hottest. Precipitation totals were slightly below normal across the U.S. as the average was 0.16 inches below normal.

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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com.