RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – As we go from the summer to the fall season, we begin to see cooler temperatures, less sunlight and, of course, the leaves on the trees start to change color.

In this weather university, I will be explaining why the leaves change color during the fall season.

There are multiple factors that influence the changing colors of the leaves — from leaf pigments, length of night and the weather.

As the days grow shorter heading into the fall months, along with the nights growing longer and the weather turning cooler, the biochemical processes in the leaf begins to paint our landscape.

As far as the amount of the colors that develop in any fall season, it is related to the weather conditions in your region that are occurring before and during the time that chlorophyll in the leaves is decreasing. Overall temperatures and moisture are the main factors here when it comes to chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll is present in virtually all photosynthetic organisms, including green plants, cyanobacteria and algae.

Finally, as far as when we will see our peak times for fall foliage across the Central Virginia region, we typically begin to see the leaves changing around middle October through early November. We will see what this fall 2023 season has in store!