Are early-changing leaves a sign to break out the fall jackets?

CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach spoke to a forester about why a number of trees across the Edmonton area are already changing colour.

Some trees in the city are already packing it up for the colder months, but it may not mean that we’re in for an early fall so much as it means that we’ve had a dry summer and some stressed-out trees.

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“It’s usually due to stress,” said professional forester David Stevenson. “Stressors in the environment make trees want to change earlier.”

Stress, he explained, can look like a number of things: moisture stress from too much or too little rain, for example.

Plus, he said, if you’re looking for instances where trees are changing colour early, look at where they’re planted.

“If it’s a site that would be hot and dry no matter what, even with all the rain … it’s likely to change its colour just because it’s under heat stress no matter what,” he said.

Stevenson noted that we can still expect a major leaf drop in September and October as per usual.

“Nothing to worry about,” he said. “I think it’s been a good summer for trees.”

CTV News Edmonton’s chief meteorologist Josh Classen confirmed that fall is not coming early.

“I think we’re going to be in a similar setup to what we had last year,” he said. That would mean a hot first two weeks of September.

“It was pretty dry through the late spring, then all of a sudden the last 60 days have been pretty close to average [rain] for most areas around Edmonton,” he said.

Stevenson also said that no matter how rainy it’s been later in the summer months, it probably won’t make up for drought-like conditions at the beginning.

So while those prematurely changing trees may be parched, they aren’t the harbinger of early cold weather, both experts said.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach