Still Some Good Fall Color at Lower Elevations

A Foggy Morning in Jonathan Valley,  as seen from Utah Mountain

There is still some fall color left at lower elevations.  It gets to totally brown as you go to higher elevations, and mostly gone on the highest mountains.  The weather has been extremely dry and warm.  In my 42 years here, this is the warmest October I can remember.  Highs this week are in the 70’s for most of the week, trailing off to the 60’s by this weekend.  At least that’s what the weatherman says.  Next week is cooler with highs mostly in the 60’s.  That is very warm for the second week in November.  If this trend continues, I won’t need to have a fire in the fireplace for Thanksgiving.  We may have to cook the turkey on the grill and eat out on the deck!

My father, who was born in Grayson County Virginia, remembered taking a horse-drawn wagon across New River on the ice, and later taking both Model T and Model A fords across the river when it was frozen solid.  I have only seen the New frozen solid once in my lifetime.  I think I was about 14 years old, and there had been lots of snow that winter.  In fact in High Point, NC, where I was raised, it snowed every Wednesday in March.  We had 2 or 3 feet of snow on the ground through most of March, well into April.  We were out of school for so long the state legislature shortened the school year so we wouldn’t have to attend class most of the summer.

Global warming?  Short-term weather pattern fluctuations?  You be the judge.

Come on up to the mountains,  but maybe bring your Bermuda shorts.