Why are the trees still covered in leaves?

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I noticed when I was driving home tonight that the trees still look like it's summer, full of green leaves. They should be red/brown and falling by now. Is this because of climate change? What is the science behind this?

I was wondering that . I think because most of July and a lot of August was very wet, maybe. Temperatures are still quite warm for October here but I am in the West country.

They won't change colour until we've had a period of cold weather. That signals to the tree its time to "shut down" for winter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbxh47h

I have noticed this too

They aren’t even yellow/orange near us.

I think part of it may be the cold weather we had up until May, and the shit weather thereafter. Chlorophyll usually breaks down after it's had a certain amount of sunlight exposure (making the leaves yellow/ brown/ red), together with an actual change in weather. This year it's all been shifted backwards.

It was 25 degrees here last weekend so as far as the trees are concerned they still have enough light and water to produce chlorophyll which makes the leaves green.

In 2022 we had autumn early in August because of the abnormally very high temperatures and lack of rain so leaves browned and dropped in the summer.

I've never seen that happen before.

I don't think the trees normally change until a bit later do they? It's normally November we get autumn colours and December the leaves fall off. They have started to turn where I am and the ground has leaves all over it. We have mushrooms growing on our lawn (yuck). I think that's normal.

It's too warm still.

We went to an arboretum at the weekend and compared to the same time last year, there were definitely less trees in autumn colours. Also there were hundreds of ladybirds going mad in the warm sunshine. By this time they are usually hibernating.

No that's not the case, bring that forward a month or so. They can still be falling off in November but it's coming to an end then

Cold snap over the weekend will get things moving.
But, if this weather doesn’t terrify you it’s because you are wearing blinkers.

July and August were wet and there has been an Indian summer. The overnight temps are forecast to plummet by the weekend so give it a week. The horse chestnuts are turning here, but they are always early. I reckon, once they turn, the colours will be spectacular and the leaves will be gone by mid November which is usual.

Paradoxically, there are vast numbers of horse chestnuts, acorns and my hazelnut has been laden. I cleared a bed yesterday, quite a distance from the horse chestnuts, and found more buried conkers than ever before. I have also never seen trees and bushes so laden with hips and berries.

I say hold tight for a bitter winter.

Well sure, but walking around in a panicked frenzy won't help anyone

I'm in Scotland and the leaf blowers are out in full force already. I saw conkers on the ground yesterday so hoping it's semi dry at the weekend to take the kids out looking for them.

I nearly started a thread on this the other day - I drove from Hertfordshire to Gloucestershire and the whole time I kept thinking: "is everything supposed to still be this green?!"

It's still consistently in the 20s here. I was in a t-shirt yesterday. Even with rain forecast tomorrow it's still 21. Next week dropping but to 15/16 so still warm. Might be enough to start the leaves turning. But yes, it's pretty scary.

I think it can be surprising. I’d always thought lots of leaves turned and dropped in October, but then a few years ago when I was teaching a Y1 class we took a monthly photo of the class standing underneath a cherry tree in the grounds. The October one still had quite a lot of green leaves and hardly any had fallen. By November it looked very different, and was bare by the December picture. I think we expect Autumn too soon!

Yes agree, climate change so clearly perceptible now. Find the people still in denial fascinating - although that group is smaller than it used to be.

I think it would actually.

If otherwise sane voters in every democracy stopped ignoring the issue we'd perhaps make progress.

I thought the same yesterday, it seemed quite strange to me as September and October usually have wonderful displays of leaf colours, but nothing here yet.

It's because we've not any any cold weather yet. Where I live on the other hand, we've had quoite a few trees go brown and then bare from June (same thing happened last year), which I don't understand.

17° here (NE) yesterday. Lovely for playing outside with the children, hard to feel like Halloween/Bonfire Night is on the way though.

Fun fact the orange you seen in the leaves is actually betacarotene which is hidden by the chlorophyll making the leaves green.

Yorkshire here. Many of the trees have changed and the conkers are falling off the trees. It isn't all London and the south you know.

Just seen it will be 10c here at the weekend. Might have to put the heating on. 😬