Weird Weather, Beautiful Colors

Central Valley, Fall Color Report

Davis Greenbelt
Davis Greenbelt (12/11/25) Philip Reedy

In the past few weeks, a weird weather pattern has descended upon the Golden State. Areas in the Central Valley have been sitting under a cold layer of fog while the sun has been shining in higher elevations.

Photographer Philip Reedy couldn’t handle sitting around any longer, so he struck out into the gray skies with his camera.

“The sun has only broken through the fog in Davis 3 times in the past 3 weeks,” he explained. “Rather than wait for a sunny day, I decided to wander around my neighborhood and take advantage of the subdued light.”

According to CBSnews.com, “the culprit is Tule Fog, a dense, ground-hugging fog unique to the Central Valley. It forms when nights are cool and clear, moisture is abundant, and a strong temperature inversion traps cold, moist air near the ground. That inversion acts like a lid on a pot, keeping the fog from mixing out.”

“It seems that the cold foggy weather has somehow slowed down the color changes here as there are still many trees, especially Chinese Pistache, that have yet to turn,” Reedy noted. “Here we are only 10 days from the beginning of winter and we still have plenty of beautiful fall colors that may hang on until Christmas.”

Here at CFC, we definitely aren’t complaining.

Christmas Colors
Christmas colors (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Chinese Pistache
Chinese Pistache (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Chinese Tallow Rainbow
Chinese Tallow rainbow (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Walnut Tree
Walnut Tree (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Walnuts and Leaves
Walnuts and leaves (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Strawberry Tree
Strawberry Tree (12/11/25) Philip Reedy
Berry Explosion
Berry explosion (12/11/25) Philip Reedy

ABOUT

California Fall Color

CaliforniaFallColor.com is a seasonal news site that reports on autumn’s show throughout California. The site is written, edited and published by Lara Kaylor, a travel and outdoor journalist based in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

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