Fall foliage update: How this week can help brighten colors

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- With lovely conditions this weekend, you might have hit the pumpkin patch, the apple orchard, or indulged in other fall activities, but you might just be waiting on one more thing, the leaves to change colors.

Well, within the next couple of weeks we might be in store for a dazzling display, with the warm, sunny days we’ve been seeing hopefully helping produce the necessary nutrients for fall colors.

One of the big hiccups in our leaf changing process are the overly dry conditions we’ve been seeing through the end of summer and into this fall. This could cause some more drab conditions in the peak color season.

A lot of the conditions we have been seeing and are expecting to see moving forward are very good for the foliage forecast.

That includes warm sunny days with highs getting into the 70s or close to them, and cool nights with lows teetering on the 50-degree mark, which describes most of last week and this upcoming week.

We also have mostly dry conditions, and it hasn’t been particularly breezy either, so this checklist looks pretty good.

Overall, I’d say this week is going to be a deciding factor, you’ll likely start to notice some of these leaves changing color, with the peak still about two weeks away still.

If you see bright colors this week, you will likely see them throughout the season, but duller colors thanks to the drought conditions we’ve been seeing can’t be ruled out.