“When the trees experience moderate to severe drought stress like we’ve had, what they’re going to do is they’re going to probably stop that production - what little they’ve had over the summer - stop that production a lot quicker, and they’re not going to produce a lot of those other pigments like the carotenoids that bring out those other fall colors,” he said. Some oak trees started browning and dropping leaves this summer, said Alex Schwartz, district silviculturist for the Oklahoma Ranger Districts of the Ouachita National Forest. In Oklahoma, where much of the state is in severe or extreme drought, the trees are expected to change earlier than usual and it will be quicker. But those leaf-peepers don’t make reservations far in advance. In Vermont, the 18-room Mad River Barn, an inn in Fayston, typically sells out for about three weeks in a row starting in late September, said inn manager Jess Kotch. But predicting when those colors will peak is not an exact science requiring experts to consider everything from temperature, the length of the day and stresses like pests and drought. Leaf peeping is big business in places like New England, where millions of visitors from around the country and world bring in billions of dollars.Įveryone from inns to diners often count on this business to get them through the rest of the year. “You know we will have good color but the color will probably be more spotty than usual.” “We will still have brilliant colors in New England because of the fact that we have so many different kinds of trees and they’re growing on kind of ridges, and kind of slopes and wetlands,” said Richard Primack, a professor of plant ecology at Boston University. Other places, like Texas, could see colors emerging later in the fall due to warm temperatures. In New England, experts anticipate the season, which typically peaks in October, to be more spread out with some trees changing earlier or even browning and dropping leaves because of the drought. This summer’s drought is expected to cause a patchy array of fall color starting earlier in the leaf-peeping haven of New England while the autumn colors are likely to be muted and not last as long in the drought- and heat-stricken areas of the south.