Trees lost their leaves much earlier then last year. Compare photos

Compared photo of the Nearly leafless Front yard Oct 16th 2010

Most trees across the local area are already completely bare, many people have noticed how fast they turned and dropped. The fall color process went very fast. We went from Low color to peak in less then 2 weeks time! This was one of the fastest times to peak color I've ever experienced. The small green tree in the middle is my Bald Cypress and the green bush beyond that are lilacs, which are normally very late turning trees.

Front yard Compare photo Oct 24th 2009

Here are two photos showing how even at a later date then this time last year, most trees still had their leaves! The second photo was taken during one of the several snowfalls we had last year in Oct, we had over 5 inches of snow last year in October, what an odd year that was! Last year we did not reach the stage in leaf loss we are currently until November 11th. This is more then 3 weeks earlier that we had trees total leafless then last year! This has most people wondering why they went so fast. There are several factors as to why this happened. One major one is that we had a much earlier start to the growing season this spring, it started about 3 weeks earlier then normal, but, another huge factor in the fast leaf drop were the very warm temperatures we had in the middle of the month. We had a week of 70 and 80 degree temperatures from the 5th through the 12th. Warm conditions such as this cause tree leaves to riping, turn colors and fall off faster then normal. Last year everyone remembers we had a much cooler then normal October, with several snowfalls. The cool conditions acted as a refrigerator to the trees, much like as a re fridge acts when we store fruit to keep them fresh longer, This is the major reason why it was much earlier then last year. Despite the fast leaf loss, fall colors was significantly better then is was last year, when early freezes ruined our chance at nice colors, by this time last year we had already recived 3.25" of snow, this year so far, None!