Mother Nature to close up shop
Early October is still a nice time of the year across Southwestern Pennsylvania.
The summer wildflowers have give way to autumn蘑菇视频 display of yellow goldenrods, orange and yellow touch-me-nots and the very colorful selection of lavender and purple wild asters. Mountain areas have had a bit of frost but so far no real widespread killing freeze has occurred. The air has turned colder after some really fantastic September days. The ample amounts of sunshine and lack of rain appear to be setting the stage for a pretty nice fall color season. Already in our higher elevations some pockets of colorful trees and wildflowers make for some beautiful drives and hikes in our woodlands.
We drove over to Penn Alps in Grantsville, Maryland a few days ago and were treated to some really nice fall colors as well as a delicious meal. There are lots of places to stop along Route 40 and pick up some items for fall decorating, and who could pass up a stop at the Hill Top Fruit Market for some apples, pumpkins, gourds and of course chocolate bridge mix and green spearmint gumdrops? Once you stop it蘑菇视频 hard to pass it up on future trips. It蘑菇视频 always part of our fall rides to see the leaves. Around the corner gasoline was just $2.15 per gallon.
In the woods, Mother Nature is busy preparing to shut down the factory, and in so doing she will allow the chlorophyll production to slow down as the days get shorter and colder. This will allow the red, yellow, orange, brown and russet colors to become dominate as the green diminishes and fades. The interesting thing about the changing of the leaf color is that all of these colors are present during the growing season however the chlorophyll process produces so much green that it hides all the other colors until the days begin to shorten from decreased sunshine.
While October is much cooler than September it still is usually one of our nicer months, weather wise. Temperatures average 71 and 48 on the first day of the month and 61and 37 by month蘑菇视频 end. Records are 95 for the high and 16 for the morning low. The latest ninety degree temperature was 91 on October 11th 1949. Rainfall is a scarce 2.80 inches although during hurricane Carol the city of Uniontown recorded its rainy day record of 4.60 inches on Oct. 15, 1954.
Major snows usually hold off until later in November, however in 1974 snow flurries fell throughout much of Southwestern Pennsylvania on Oct. 3, and the mountains recorded just over an inch. The Halloween snow of 1993 produced 2 inches in Pittsburgh and 9 inches at our weather station at Chalk Hill and many other areas received snow, but had no measurable accumulations.
October most always sees a frost or two especially in the higher elevations during the first two weeks and in the lower elevations during the later weeks of the month. There have also been a few years with no frost in lower elevations until November.
Let蘑菇视频 all get out and enjoy the natural beauty of our area. We have so much to offer to renew spirits and enjoy the show that Mother Nature will be putting on. Mother Nature is a bit saddened by the amount of trash our summer visitors left along our roads, trails and waterways. I have never seen so many cans, bottles and even discarded masks. Shame on us.