Our leaves aren't the only laggards

As card-carrying Snowbirds, we're now totally tuned into turning tree leaves.  Our Snowbird travel schedule is remarkably simply: "When the Leaves are gone, so are we."  The leaves in Idaho Falls are hanging on long than anyone we know can remember.  We thought it was just an Idaho phenomena until we read story in the October 19th "Arizona Daily Sun."  It seems that the area's legendary aspens are taking their sweet time turning colors, too.    The Sun doesn't allow printing of its articles so we've decided to put most of the text of the article into this blog post.  It is below. You can click here to see the original article.

"By Randy Wilson, Daily Sun Editor:

It might not be official, but it's hard to ignore the evidence. This might be one of the latest fall color seasons in Flagstaff on record.  A hike this past Saturday morning on the lower Weatherford Trail found fully-turned doghair aspen -- but bigger trees that were still entirely green.  The same reports have come in informally from hikers on the southern end of the Kachina Trail, where the big aspen have another week to go, as do the trees at so-called "Aspen Corner" on Snowbowl Road.  But others have reported a full turn in the groves lining Forest Road 794 east of Highway 180 and west of Fern Mountain.

And the big, still-green grove I reported on two weeks ago off Forest Road 418 at the Arizona Trail on the far northern slopes of the San Francisco Peaks also has nearly turned. But that still leaves much of the Kachina Trail and the aspen groves of Hart Prairie to enjoy for perhaps another week -- if there are any leaves left after this week's series of predicted storms.

Why so late a turn this year? One reason has to be the warmer daytime temperatures and the absence so far of a really hard frost that will kill all the leaves.  This past September in the Flagstaff region wound up being one of the warmest on record, and the first half of October has started out with above-average temperatures, too. All that extra sunshine and warmth seems to have kept the green chlorophyll pumping overtime.

But why are the bigger, older aspen last to turn? I haven't gotten an answer to that question -- perhaps readers will supply one."

End of quoted story