From Beth Gauper's Midwest Weekend Newsletter

September 9, 2010

Pursuing the hues

With luck, leaf peepers in the Upper Midwest can squeeze six weeks of color out of fall.

As anyone who’s ever planned a fall trip knows, peak leaf color can be elusive.

Betting on a burst of spectacular color is like plugging nickels into a slot machine. To win, all of the figures have to line up: the right number of warm days and cool nights, the right levels of sugar produced, the right amounts of moisture.

Last year, the weather was schizophrenic — dry earlier in the summer, then wet; unseasonably warm in September, then cold and windy — and the leaves suffered. In some places, they fell off trees while still green.

But this year looks like a winner. Most of the Upper Midwest had plenty of warmth, sun and moisture, and now the nights are cooling. It looks so good that often-burned naturalists are willing to venture a prediction.

"I guess I can go out on a limb and say colors are going to be great this year,'' says Sue Benson of the Cable Natural History Museum in northwest Wisconsin. "The oranges already are starting to show.''

Flecks of red are appearing on inland maples on Minnesota's North Shore.

Read the full story on her website.