Every August there is a day when something changes in the light and the air, and I clearly sense that that summer is going to end soon and fall will arrive. I think that today may have been that day where I live.
On this morning’s long walk the temperature was 10-20 degrees cooler than it has been recently, even though it was very sunny. A strong and gusty wind was blowing out of the south , which is very unusual around here this time of year. That wind blew clattering leaves along the sidewalks and streets. And, yes, there are brown leaves here and there now.
The light was different — it was bright, but the sun had less of the uncomfortable intensity of the hottest July days. And somehow the quality of sound changed — this is hard to describe, but I’m sure that I sense it.
This happens every year for me. It can be hard to put my finger or precisely what gives me this feeling, but it is distinct and real. It isn’t that it feels like fall — it is more that the feeling of seasonal transition is arriving. During the height of summer, at least here in Northern California, there’s a period of a couple of months starting just before the solstice when the range of change is small and the general trend is consistent: It is warm to hot. Strong winds are rare. Gardens are green, but our grassy hills are “California golden.”
I’ve learned to not let this early change fool me into thinking that real fall weather is arriving. Around here, some of the hottest days of the year are still ahead of us — that’s one of the oddities of San Francisco Bay Area weather. But nights in the Sierra will soon be colder and longer, and in less than a month plants and trees will be turning fall colors. We’ll likely see some early weather fronts come through. And in a month and a half the Eastern Sierra will again turn golden with the color of autumn aspen trees.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.
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