Why exactly do leaves change color in the fall anyway?

AccuWeather

We all admire the beautiful fall colors as forests transform into vivid red, orange and yellow landscapes, but what makes the trees do that? AccuWeather's Ariella Scalese quickly breaks down the science.

Transcript

00:00 you take in the fall foliage, you may be wondering why the leaves change color in

00:03 the first place. Ariella Scalise is here to break it down for us.

00:07 Thanks. And it's that time of year we're starting to see the beautiful autumn

00:12 colors moving through and the change of the leaves from that bright green color

00:17 we have all summer long to then starting to peak into some colors of yellow,

00:22 oranges and red. So we're breaking down why the leaves do change color as we

00:27 get shorter days here, less sunlight. The chlorophyll that takes over the

00:31 leaves throughout the summer season starts to fade a bit here and let some

00:35 of those other colors start to pop so that chlorophyll production becomes a

00:39 little bit less and those yellows and oranges are starting to be a little bit

00:42 more revealed here as we continue in to our fall season. And did you know the

00:47 kind of weather that you've been having recently can also impact how the leaves

00:51 are looking out there. So when we take a look at the moisture comparison, if

00:55 you've had very dry conditions here, the leaf color in your area, maybe a little

00:59 bit muted, maybe even a little bit delayed. But if you've had some recent

01:03 really wet conditions that can often cause the leaf color change to be more

01:07 vibrant and more on time as long as it's not too wet and windy that the leaves

01:11 just kind of come off the trees at that point. Let's take a closer look at some

01:15 of the different colors here that may be taking up the area where you live. If

01:18 you're starting to see some of those golden bronze colors, those air from the

01:21 hickories, the purple reddish colors, those are the nice dogwood trees. You

01:25 see a lot of those throughout the southeast into the southeast, limited to

01:29 no really change in the color of the leaves. We're seeing more of those

01:31 changes, though, of course, as you head farther north, especially into northern

01:34 parts of Wisconsin and into the arrowhead of Minnesota. All right, back

01:38 to you.

01:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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