“It blew right past,” seems an appropriate description for today’s California Fall Color report, as just like a California street rod, this past week’s blustery weather blew right past.
While the wind storm was here, it blew away most of what remained of turned color in the Shasta Cascade, Sierra foothills and northern Central Valley. Reports were similarly received from Southern California, though the wind is not expected to have appreciably changed the show down south, as color develops in spurts there and will continue to show into December.
The grand show of color in northern California’s urban forests is now gone with the wind, having tumbled away in the breezes, revealing bare branches on towering London Plane Tree and elms. Blue oaks continue to carry halos of buff-orange leaves, though that color has been reduced in intensity. Likewise, Cottonwood have lost a lot of their luster, though neighboring wetlands are identified by their glow.
Fall color will continue to brighten urban areas during Thanksgiving Day week.
