The Impact Of This Year's Drought On Fall Foliage Season

The air is crisp, the sky is a brilliant blue, the Red Sox are battling to stay in the postseason...it's autumn in New England, no question about it. But this year, you might have noticed that things are different when it comes to fall foliage.

Richard Primack, professor of biology and plant ecology at Boston University, says that this year's fall foliage season is less-than-spectacular because of the extreme drought affecting Greater Boston. "It's very striking," he told us on a walk through Webster Woods in Newton, "because during the height of the drought in July and August and the very high temperatures, a lot of the trees started to drop their leaves, the leaves started to turn brown, and also some of the leaves started to prematurely turn color." What other effects might this year's dry conditions have on the reds and oranges of a New England fall?

Richard Primack, professor of biology at Boston University.