Autumn Colors Disappeared Under a Blanket of White

Posted by: admin on Friday, October 30th, 2009

Finally, a skift of snow. While the rest of Colorado digs out from under mountains of white, southeastern Colorado (Lamar) got a light skift of the white powder. Often, folks along the front range accuse us of living in Kansas. Not so, we’re on the beaches of the Kansas Oceans (according to Tom Betz), but no where near the point of getting our feet wet. If recent snow falls have any thing to say about it, we’re no where near moisture of any kind… But we have gotten a bit more than our normal share of rain this past month, so I’m not complaining.

Most generally, southeastern Colorado simply fades from late summer sun-washed greens to something resembling white… a kind of pale gray color impaled by dust in the early winter, lacking autumn color, and Indian Summer evades us. However, this year, we had a blaze of Indian Summer Color stretching across the prairies, from the late blooming sunflowers to the dancing leaves of autumn raining down in golden showers of brilliant color.  The difference?

Moisture levels in the trees.

When trees and grasses have moisture, color is plentiful. We’ve experienced higher than normal levels of rain this year, all year, which meant our trees were healthier, brighter and more colorful all summer long. Many of them took on that lustrous yellow-green color early in the season and grew into rich deep greens later in the summer, to sweep the autumn landscapes with brilliant colors. Sunsets have been more dazzling this year too. Moisture in the atmosphere opens up the skies to cloudy magnificence.

So, if you’re wondering about the excesses of color this fall, here in Colorado, I just wanted you to know it’s due to the moisture that will bring – eventually – more winter snow this year to the front range and hopefully the Colorado Prairies.

Topics: Jan's Rambles

2 Responses to “Autumn Colors Disappeared Under a Blanket of White”

Daniellle Simone Says:
November 5th, 2009 at 11:00 am

Amen to the beautiful Colorado colors this past month, Jan. I ALMOST thought I might be back home on the east coast where brilliant fall colors are the norm. For Colorado, this was a stunning fall display. Our high prairies strutted their stuff this year!

They are especially nice at John Martin Dam near Hasty. Check out their ‘reflections’.

Nice post!

Danielle

 

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