Weather and Climate

Not Your Imagination: Fall Colors Have Been Especially Good This Year

NWNews

Published October 25, 2013 at 3:44 PM PDT

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Fall leaves litter the ground at Cathedral Park beneath the St. Johns bridge.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Fall colors reflect in the Willamette River in Cathedral Park underneath the St. Johns Bridge in Portland, Ore.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Fall leaves litter the ground at Cathedral Park beneath the St. Johns bridge in Portland, Ore.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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The sun sets on the Willamette River in Portland, Ore. with the The Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge in the distance.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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The shadow of the St. Johns bridge is cast across North Portland.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Fall colors reflect in the Bosque, a plaza of four reflecting ponds which contain 40 trees, at The Oregon Garden.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Fall colors reflect in the Bosque, a plaza of four reflecting ponds which contain 40 trees, at The Oregon Garden.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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The leaves of a tree catch the afternoon light at the Portland Japanese Garden.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

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Fall colors surround the authentic moon bridge is a feature in the Strolling Pond Garden at the Portland Japanese Garden.

Tess Freeman / Oregon Public Broadcasting

It's not your imagination: Fall colors have been spectacular in the Northwest this year. But if you want to catch a glimpse, you'd better hurry.

If you remember from grade school, leaves change color when the process of turning the sun’s rays into food winds down. There's no objective scale for measuring a region's autumnal brilliance. But Oregon State University forestry instructor Paul Ries says this year's colors are among the best.

"It all comes down to that magic word," he says. "Weather."

Ries says the same conditions that have made being outside so nice this month also make for an attractive palette on the region's deciduous trees.

“We've been very fortunate in October to have dry days and cool nights. And those are ideal conditions for vivid fall colors."

Ries says some of the best displays in the Northwest are in urban parks and college campuses. And he says the days of yellows, reds and oranges could be numbered.

He expects the first November rains could put an end to the show.

On the Web:

Oregon fall foliage website