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.
COMMENT OR QUESTION? Scroll down to the comment form.
See the Sales page for information about licensing and print sales.
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.
Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.
False Fall? Absolutely gorgeous pic!
Thanks!
“False Fall” definitely happens. For years (OK, decades) I thought that fall weather should begin in September here in California. In a sense, it sort of does — the weather then is different than, say, August. But it is also generally pretty darned warm. And in the SF Bay Area it is the season when we have the least fog, so even the coast feels warmer then.
I’ve since learned to think of it as a transitional “real fall is coming” season here. The Sierra begins to feel like fall a bit earlier, but the main indicator — aspen trees changing color — may begin in late September, but it is really an October feature. It is even later in the lowlands. Yosemite Valley, for example, at 4000′ gets fall colors near the end of October, often peaking around November 1. Out in the Central Valley and closer to the coast it isn’t until late November and December! (I’ve photographed “fall color” in the Central Valley in… January!)