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Vibrant Fall Foliage in California

Convict Lake (10/12/23) Hanna Summers

Californiafallcolor.com was highlighted this week, along with several photos from our color spotters in a piece titled,“California’s fall foliage is ‘very vibrant’ this year. Here’s where to see it.”

Indeed, while it got off to a late start, this year’s color has been beautiful and vibrant so far.

The piece covers the topic of this anomaly year where color changes have not followed the pattern of descending from highest elevations to lowest, but instead have popped up, willy nilly around the state.

If the link doesn’t work you can read the article here.

Snowcreek Meadow, Mammoth Lakes (10/13/23) Angie Plaisted

WYSIWYG

San Francisco Chronicle, 9/26/23

Several map makers create maps purporting to forecast fall color. Few do it accurately.

On California Fall Color, what you see is what you get. We only post what has been observed, as reported to us by a network of some 100 volunteer “color spotters.”

That takes time and patience, but it is accurate. You can trust that what we report is peaking, truly is. We only report what is being seen and base any forecast on actual current observations and documented historical record.

Explore Fall, a new autumn-centric website has created a computer model based on “gridded temperature, precipitation and daylight data” that they claim is “accurate within three days, 80% of the time.” However, the map they provided to the San Francisco Chronicle today wasn’t 10% accurate within 30 days. 

Yosemite will not begin showing fall color until the first to second week of October, when a non-native Eastern sugar maple peaks near the Yosemite Chapel (last year, this lone tree peaked on Oct. 4). A week or two later, bigleaf maple and dogwood will begin coloring yellow and pink along the banks of the Merced River and will peak in late October.

Yosemite Valley’s show will culminate in November, when deep-orange black oak flame out among its meadows.

Yet, Explore Fall forecasts Yosemite to peak on Oct 2 and that the Eastern Sierra will be past peak by then. Nonsense.

Such guesses aren’t even close to what really happens. Computer models may be useful in other locales where fall color is unpredictable, but to forecast when and where color will peak anywhere in California, combine what CFC.com is now reporting with past reports (see “Reports By” at right).

The combination of current observation with what happened in prior years provides the most accurate way to find glorious fall color in The Golden State. 

Though we love technology in California, we also know its limitations. Forecasting fall color is  one of them. You need people on the ground to know when and where it will peak.

If You Know Where To Look

Feuille-morte, LA County Arboretum, Arcadia (11/30/22) Frank McDonough

It’s the first day of December. Rain is pelting the street and a hushed roar occasionally rushes by the house as an unseen wind swirls past. If any day, this Autumn, feels like winter, it is today.

Yet, as I read The New York Times this morning, the headline declares, “California Has Brilliant Color … If You Know Where To Look.”

I do. It’s found in low canyons near streams where California sycamore, Frémont cottonwood and California black walnut glow in chestnut, gold and saffron displays.

It’s found in neighborhoods, city parks and urban forests where the limbs of Liquidambar, Bradford pear, and Gingko biloba release their feuille-morte to flutter down, carpeting the landscape with vermillion, scarlet and gamboge.

Fall color is still here, despite the storm, if you know where to look.

To read The Times’ article, CLICK HERE.

Sneaky Great Fall Color

LA’s very own KTLA-5 asked Kyle Cotner, who compiles The Foliage Report what he thought of California’s fall color. He replied, “While California is not known for fall colors, it absolutely is a sneaky great fall foliage state.”

Bravo, Kyle. Couldn’t agree more. To read KTLA’s review of where to find sneaky great color in California, CLICK HERE.

Being At One With The Forest

Being at one with the forest is something I do often. Just go into a forest. Tread upon its spongy duff. Stop. Feel the breeze against your cheek. Hear the soft rustle of leaves as they flutter. I did that yesterday in the forest seen above.

That experience and other observations are described in an interview done last week with SFGate’s Doug Zimmerman. To read it, CLICK HERE.

Evidence of how rapidly things change is found in the article. At the time of the interview, color development was running about a week late by our clocks, but then it raced forward. Now, peak color is about on schedule.

For The Record

When Tim Viall, Travel Editor at the Stockton Record called, CaliforniaFallColor.com provided these tips on viewing fall color within a day’s drive of Stockton. For the full report, CLICK HERE.

Where’s The Fall Color?

“The Golden State, of course,” answers California’s oldest newspaper (1851), the Mountain Democrat. To read more, CLICK HERE.

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A Fortnight From Fall

NBC LA posted that we’re just a “fortnight from fall,” their “velvety way” of reminding readers of their website that summer has entered its final two weeks.

Considering that scorching temperatures have  roasted the Golden State this past week, it was refreshing to see the station remind its viewers that “cooler temperatures, crisp mornings and evenings, and all those colorful leaves,” are just ahead.

In doing so, they gave a nod to CaliforniaFallColor.com, describing the “plummy hues,” “eye-popping shows” that fill “chromatic canyons” reported each autumn within this blog.

It’s still a bit early to exhort readers to “Go Now!,” though we’ll do so by encouraging our users to read what NBC LA wrote about this site. Their kindness is appreciated.

You’ll find their post at: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/worth-the-trip/leaf-peepers-the-california-fall-color-blog-is-ready-for-autumn/2980178/

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Monarchs Return

Monarch Butterflies, Santa Cruz (1/15/2006) John Poimiroo

One hundred times more Monarch butterflies are being seen along the California coast this year, than were counted last year, as reported on CBS News.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/monarch-butterflies-return-to-california-in-droves/

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California Sun Shines on LA County

The California Sun loves California Fall Color, as we do it.

California Sun editor Mike McPhate reminded readers of the beauty to be found at the LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden – which we suggest as a perfect destination on Orange Friday (the day following Thanksgiving Day) – much better’n a mall.