Red oaks to the rescue
After a somewhat disappointing fall color season that was much later than normal, Mother Nature has come through thanks to the red oak trees that are coloring our hillsides.
Combined with some late-coloring maples and some yellow, orange and red shrubs, we have a pretty good late-season show. Most years, by the time we get to the tenth of November the leaves are off the trees and we are busy raking the last of them and getting ready for the snows of winter. With late season warmth and ample rains, the growing season continued much later this year. The same was true last year, and this later display of our fall colors may be another indication of a warming climate. We are running about 15 days behind schedule, and usually by now the leaves in the mountains are all down and not much remains in the lower elevations. It appears we will still have some color into mid-November and some urban areas will hold their leaves until late in the month.
I was surprised to see so much color in Ohiopyle this week. We had little or no color for the annual Buck Wheat festival the second weekend in October and the little town was a blaze of color this week.
Early November is usually when we see our first snowflakes of the season. In the mountains, the first flakes are normally around the end of October. Accumulating snow can occur on any given November day in the area, and many years, we get a few inches around this time.
The Halloween snow in 1993 left a blanket of snow across most of Western Pennsylvania with 9 inches in Pittsburgh and 8 inches at Chalk Hill. Old-timers may recall the 鈥渂ig snow鈥� of Thanksgiving 1950 when the area and Pittsburgh were buried under 20-30 inches of snow. This was also known as the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 and produced hurricane force winds and flooding along the East Coast.
Over 50 inches of snow were measured in West Virginia. The snow is something to think about as we make our plans to travel to grandmother蘑菇视频 house for Thanksgiving dinner.
This is also a good time to take a look at your automobile needs as winter weather approaches and don鈥檛 forget to check on where you put the old snow shovel.