Clemson researcher predicts late but colorful change in leaves

Florence failed to put a damper on what could be a brightly-colored fall in Upstate South Carolina.

Each year, Clemson University forest ecologist Don Hagan makes a pilgrimage to higher elevation to assess foliage and make predictions for when leaves will change color. 

On Sept. 18, Hagan visited Devil's Courthouse, a mountain in the Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County, North Carolina, where the elevation is almost 5,500 feet. 

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“This elevation is where you see the fall color happening first, and you’re going to see that change, that wave of color kind of working its way down the mountain, down in elevation as you move into fall,” Hagan said in a statement.

Unlike Hurricane Irma in 2017, which blew off many leaves after they had already started to change, Florence did not take a heavy toll on the area.

“What a difference a year makes," Hagan said. "Every year we come up here for my dendrology class, but I don’t think in the time that we’ve been doing this, there’s ever been as big a difference as we’re seeing between 2018 and 2017.

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Based on the amount of green foliage still visible above 5,000 feet, Hagan anticipates a later start to the fall color change, depending on the weather through the rest of October.

In 2017, the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism started noting changing colors as early as the first week in October.

“You get some cooler weather and those nice bluebird skies, and the clear skies along with the cooler temperatures help bring out some of the brighter colors and particularly the reds and the purples,” Hagan said. “If we can see that as we transition into fall, I think this could really line up to be a fantastic fall color season.”