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CNN Saturday Morning News

Why Leaves Change Color, Fall

Aired October 19, 2002 - 08:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, summer is kind of a memory. The hot days are gone. Time for fall.
KATHLEEN KENNEDY, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Bring on the fall.

KENNEDY: So where is all that good fall foliage that's supposed to be in full bloom? It's not in the Southeast Asia, Jacqui Jeras. Where is it?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

Actually, the majority of the country is starting to see their peaks now. The second and third weeks of October are typically the peak areas, peak days, I guess, weeks. There we go.

O'BRIEN: Up there in your home country.

JERAS: Up in my home country, yes.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

JERAS: Across much of Minnesota, across the Northeast, of course. And people spend millions, if not billions of dollars on this stuff, $700 million for Vermont fall tourism last year, over a billion dollars in Wisconsin.

KENNEDY: Wow.

O'BRIEN: That's a lot of leaf peeping.

JERAS: That is a lot of leaf peeping. We all learned in grade school, I think, why this happens, but many of us forget, so we're going to have a little Fall Foliage 101 for you this morning.

There are three factors that contribute to the change in the colors of the leaves. And the first one is the most important and influences most of why this happens, and it has to do with the amount of sunlight. As we get into the winter type months and the late fall months, we have lesser amounts of daylight. Sunlight is needed to make chlorophyll and, of course, if you remember, chlorophyll, that's the chemical that's inside trees, that fluid that moves into the leaves that causes it to turn that green color.

So chlorophyll, the amount of it is lessened the less sunlight that there is. So eventually the green goes away and it's stopped being produced altogether and so the natural pigment colors of the tree itself, which is predetermined, starts to come out.

Now another big factor is the weather. Several different things weather wise can affect the leaves. First of all, wind. That's one of the most obvious things. That can just blow your leaves right off altogether. But much of the country, about 50 percent of the country has been dealing with drought this year. And with less water, those leaves aren't retained on the trees as long. So sometimes they will shrivel up and they'll just fall off before you really see any significant color change.

Also, things like too much wet weather, believe it or not, can influence it, as well. It will keep it a little bit greener a little bit longer, so you won't see as prolonged of a period where you see some of that good colored.

Now, what about the pigment? Well, what color do your leaves turn? It just all depends on the natural pigment die and the color of the tree. That determines whether or not it will be yellow, orange, red or purple. And there are chemicals within the tree like caretenoids -- does that sound familiar to you?

O'BRIEN: No.

KENNEDY: Not especially.

JERAS: You think of carotene, orange, that's the yellow. And then anthacyanins, that's your reds and your plums.

Now, who's seeing peak right now? We've got a great map we've put together for you to show you the peak areas across the country, predominantly across much of the Northeast, the Upper Midwest and then many of the mountainous regions across the West.

A few specifics for you, if you want to know, Kathleen, you mentioned the Southeast, 50 to 30 percent is seeing colors. The higher elevations are starting to show now, so the average peak is the third week. So we are a little bit later than normal across much of the South here.

How about the Southwest? Well, southern Arizona is starting to peak. But up north not much color yet. There is some color above 8,000 feet. The Pacific Southwest, not much change yet there either, about 50 to 75 percent changed above 9,000 feet. The White Mountains should be peaking next week.

And what about the East? Well, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin unusually brilliant color. Most of you are at or near peak. Virginia and Ohio looking for your peak to be next week.

OK, you have that tree in your backyard and you're wondering what color it's going to be changing? Well, we have a list of a couple of them for you. You have a sumac in your back yard? Well, you can expect that to turn yellow -- or red, rather, so you can see that the color of the leaf on our map here. That's the color that will change. So red, maple, scarlet, oak and sumac all turn red. A reddish-orangeish tree, black oak, and the sugar maple, orange. If it's going to turn orange it will likely be a white oak or witch hazel. And how about a yellowish orange color? That would be the beech tree and the butternut and American elm trees all turn yellow.

If you need some more information, there are just a plethora of sites on the Internet that you can log onto. But one specifically we want to pull up for you, www.fs.fed.us. And that's the USDA Forest Service site. And there are links on here to every region across the country where you can find out more information probably than you ever wanted to know. You can see the hot line number on there, too, 1-800- 354-4595. And there you can see those blue links. That's where you click on. And it will tell you what areas and even if you want some driving ideas, a lot of them will tell you what highway to go down to see some really good color, as well. So log on there and check it out.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

KENNEDY: I feel like I've just been to class.

JERAS: All right.

KENNEDY: I've learned a lot.

O'BRIEN: Very nice.

KENNEDY: But, you know, I always thought it had to do with just the life span of a leaf, certain trees' leaves had...

JERAS: It's all about the chlorophyll and the amount of daylight. They need more sun.

KENNEDY: And if you live in the Southeast you're going to have to hop a plane to go see some good foliage now.

JERAS: Ideal conditions for the change of the color for the leaf making, you want to have short days, of course, and then you want to have very cool, crisp nights, but not freezing nights...

KENNEDY: Right.

JERAS: ... because that can cause them to die a little bit faster. You want to have dry weather, as well. So actually the last week that we've had here in the Atlanta area has been perfect for leaf peeping and leaf making.

KENNEDY: All right.

O'BRIEN: But all things being equal, it's a more muted season than you get up North down here, generally?

JERAS: Yes, oh, generally, absolutely. But you get up into the North Georgia mountains and...

O'BRIEN: Yes. JERAS: Yes, the farther up north you get, the better it is.

KENNEDY: You get more color. Oh, that's great.

O'BRIEN: Jacqui, thank you very much.

JERAS: OK.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 19, 2002 - 08:25   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, summer is kind of a memory. The hot days are gone. Time for fall.
KATHLEEN KENNEDY, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Bring on the fall.

KENNEDY: So where is all that good fall foliage that's supposed to be in full bloom? It's not in the Southeast Asia, Jacqui Jeras. Where is it?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

Actually, the majority of the country is starting to see their peaks now. The second and third weeks of October are typically the peak areas, peak days, I guess, weeks. There we go.

O'BRIEN: Up there in your home country.

JERAS: Up in my home country, yes.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

JERAS: Across much of Minnesota, across the Northeast, of course. And people spend millions, if not billions of dollars on this stuff, $700 million for Vermont fall tourism last year, over a billion dollars in Wisconsin.

KENNEDY: Wow.

O'BRIEN: That's a lot of leaf peeping.

JERAS: That is a lot of leaf peeping. We all learned in grade school, I think, why this happens, but many of us forget, so we're going to have a little Fall Foliage 101 for you this morning.

There are three factors that contribute to the change in the colors of the leaves. And the first one is the most important and influences most of why this happens, and it has to do with the amount of sunlight. As we get into the winter type months and the late fall months, we have lesser amounts of daylight. Sunlight is needed to make chlorophyll and, of course, if you remember, chlorophyll, that's the chemical that's inside trees, that fluid that moves into the leaves that causes it to turn that green color.

So chlorophyll, the amount of it is lessened the less sunlight that there is. So eventually the green goes away and it's stopped being produced altogether and so the natural pigment colors of the tree itself, which is predetermined, starts to come out.

Now another big factor is the weather. Several different things weather wise can affect the leaves. First of all, wind. That's one of the most obvious things. That can just blow your leaves right off altogether. But much of the country, about 50 percent of the country has been dealing with drought this year. And with less water, those leaves aren't retained on the trees as long. So sometimes they will shrivel up and they'll just fall off before you really see any significant color change.

Also, things like too much wet weather, believe it or not, can influence it, as well. It will keep it a little bit greener a little bit longer, so you won't see as prolonged of a period where you see some of that good colored.

Now, what about the pigment? Well, what color do your leaves turn? It just all depends on the natural pigment die and the color of the tree. That determines whether or not it will be yellow, orange, red or purple. And there are chemicals within the tree like caretenoids -- does that sound familiar to you?

O'BRIEN: No.

KENNEDY: Not especially.

JERAS: You think of carotene, orange, that's the yellow. And then anthacyanins, that's your reds and your plums.

Now, who's seeing peak right now? We've got a great map we've put together for you to show you the peak areas across the country, predominantly across much of the Northeast, the Upper Midwest and then many of the mountainous regions across the West.

A few specifics for you, if you want to know, Kathleen, you mentioned the Southeast, 50 to 30 percent is seeing colors. The higher elevations are starting to show now, so the average peak is the third week. So we are a little bit later than normal across much of the South here.

How about the Southwest? Well, southern Arizona is starting to peak. But up north not much color yet. There is some color above 8,000 feet. The Pacific Southwest, not much change yet there either, about 50 to 75 percent changed above 9,000 feet. The White Mountains should be peaking next week.

And what about the East? Well, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin unusually brilliant color. Most of you are at or near peak. Virginia and Ohio looking for your peak to be next week.

OK, you have that tree in your backyard and you're wondering what color it's going to be changing? Well, we have a list of a couple of them for you. You have a sumac in your back yard? Well, you can expect that to turn yellow -- or red, rather, so you can see that the color of the leaf on our map here. That's the color that will change. So red, maple, scarlet, oak and sumac all turn red. A reddish-orangeish tree, black oak, and the sugar maple, orange. If it's going to turn orange it will likely be a white oak or witch hazel. And how about a yellowish orange color? That would be the beech tree and the butternut and American elm trees all turn yellow.

If you need some more information, there are just a plethora of sites on the Internet that you can log onto. But one specifically we want to pull up for you, www.fs.fed.us. And that's the USDA Forest Service site. And there are links on here to every region across the country where you can find out more information probably than you ever wanted to know. You can see the hot line number on there, too, 1-800- 354-4595. And there you can see those blue links. That's where you click on. And it will tell you what areas and even if you want some driving ideas, a lot of them will tell you what highway to go down to see some really good color, as well. So log on there and check it out.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

KENNEDY: I feel like I've just been to class.

JERAS: All right.

KENNEDY: I've learned a lot.

O'BRIEN: Very nice.

KENNEDY: But, you know, I always thought it had to do with just the life span of a leaf, certain trees' leaves had...

JERAS: It's all about the chlorophyll and the amount of daylight. They need more sun.

KENNEDY: And if you live in the Southeast you're going to have to hop a plane to go see some good foliage now.

JERAS: Ideal conditions for the change of the color for the leaf making, you want to have short days, of course, and then you want to have very cool, crisp nights, but not freezing nights...

KENNEDY: Right.

JERAS: ... because that can cause them to die a little bit faster. You want to have dry weather, as well. So actually the last week that we've had here in the Atlanta area has been perfect for leaf peeping and leaf making.

KENNEDY: All right.

O'BRIEN: But all things being equal, it's a more muted season than you get up North down here, generally?

JERAS: Yes, oh, generally, absolutely. But you get up into the North Georgia mountains and...

O'BRIEN: Yes. JERAS: Yes, the farther up north you get, the better it is.

KENNEDY: You get more color. Oh, that's great.

O'BRIEN: Jacqui, thank you very much.

JERAS: OK.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com