False Autumn 2022

Danno

Since last week's heatwave set in, I've noticed more and more trees shedding their leaves. Last Sunday night we had a lightning storm here in the wee hours and some hail came down which really helped the leaves fall. Spent a good hour this evening sweeping up leaves that have blown in around the driveway and back yard following yesterday's breezy conditions.

Curious as to other parts of the country if similar is replicated where other posters live? Photos welcome!

False Autumn is a term for trees that shed leaves early to conserve water and berry trees bear their fruit early also.

Also interested to see if this dry and sunny weather of late leads to a very colourful Autumn.

Gaoth Laidir

I was down in the Kerry Gaeltacht over the weekend and was amazed at the unusual types of flora they have growing down there. Very different to the rest of the country. Everything's in full bloom down there and I didn't see any evidence of stress on trees.

What a beautiful part of the country it is.

Jim_Hodge

Dry sunny weather leads to less colour as trees under stress drop leaves before chlorophyll has been reduced in the leaves. Damp weather leads to chlorophyll free leaves staying attached to the tree and giving the autumn colours.

pad199207

Yeah very evident in the Kildare Desert now. Birch and Whitebeam in particular

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119502932#Comment_119502932

Interesting. 2013 was the last really vivid Autumn colours I remember of. July, August and September of that year had little over 50% of rainfall around these parts. Perhaps the extra-dry conditions we've endured so far might put the prospects of another vivid Autumn display in peril?

pauldry

In London there were way more leaves on the ground than Sligo. Must be heat stress and false Autumn there but then again is August not Autumn?

Oneiric 3

Swept up a few maple leaves alright today but didn't think much of it at the time. I have seen leaves evem nore yellow and autumnesque though at this time of year in other years. I can't remember exactly, but either August 2015/16 or 17. I recall others and I remarked on it the time on this forum.

Edit, could have been 2013 as well as mentioned above but I just can't remember. It was around that general period of time anyway.

Our cherry tree leaves have yellowed and are about to drop. Very unusual for them. Beginning to notice leaf litter in general too. I put it down to heat stress and a little wind I think. NW Donegal.

secman

In sunny Southeast our garden is very noticeably covered in drooped leaves. The lawn that was lush green a couple of months ago is badly scorched especially along side a large hedge.

It's a heavy clay area and the heavy rain last Mon was soaked up immediately, made little difference at all.

Danno

Snapped these out and about this evening. The beech tree in the last image is really turning colour.

Huge drop on the green at the bottom of the estate in Cork City. All the mature whitethorn trees in my mother's garden have shed hugely. We've had 10mm so far this month after 28mm in July. Just 58 per cent of mean rainfall for the year so far. I have never seen it so dry.

Cumhachtach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058259797/false-autumn-2022

100% in my part of South East Laois. Beech trees started going 2 weeks ago.

No exaggeration to say, pre Ophelia, 17 October 2017, we had no more leaves down.

Raven1221

The season look the same as for the 10 past year here. I think that false affairs like this happens a lot in our world. Courage!

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119508071#Comment_119508071

Where is your "here"?

Rikand

Cant say much about the leaves, but the giant house spiders are flocking into our home in their droves 😅

OldRio

No early fall here in South Leitrim. The garden is looking lush and the trees full. Summer flowering plants looking wonderful.

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119508974#Comment_119508974

Shows how for a smallish island like Ireland that our weather can be so varied from region to region. I remember in 2016 speaking with a colleague living along the shores of Lough Derg on the Clare-Tipp border and they felt the summer was wet enough there, meanwhile back here we were having drought conditions with grass burning up. He didn't believe it until I showed him photos on my smartphone. So, @OldRio - pop up a photo of the lush Leitrim countryside for us when you get a chance! 😊

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119509403#Comment_119509403

The woods beside the house, North Louth, are just as in most last weeks of August. A few ornamentals in the garden shed leaves last week due to heat stress but the native trees aren't much different to most years.

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119509403#Comment_119509403

Will do.

C4000

Stephen's green at lunchtime today....

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525488#Comment_119525488

Plenty of leaves down! Grass is green enough though by the looks of things - are the local authorities watering it?

C4000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525615#Comment_119525615

I'd say so.....they definitely water the more manicured parts around the centre of the park at any rate.

Danno

The lack of rainfall in Durrow is taking its toll on the grass.

Our local walk in Cork City. Huge leaf drop and grass resembling a common in London during a heatwave. I've never seen it like this before.

Orion402

I doubt very much if readers heard of a 'false autumn' before as it seems to re-inforce the contention that August isn't part of that season. I just assume that people have already felt the transition to Autumn by the middle of August as daylight lengths really begin to shorten, even with DST applied.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1150982

Autumn begins on the September Equinox in America as the meteorology of a continental climate at lower latitudes on the Continent suit that designation with no pretence whatsoever in regard to the dynamics behind the seasons and likewise, the same is happening at our latitudes and the meteorology of a maritime climate. There is no need to appeal to a 'false autumn' unless there is a desperate need to use parched vegetation after the June Solstice (midsummer) to promote the contrived notion.

The nomenclature surrounding of the seasons is not arbitrary outside meteorological concerns insofar as to understand the tendency toward warmer and cooler conditions by hemisphere is an issue of planetary dynamics.

Cumhachtach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119536253#Comment_119536253

The same post appears in all the Met threads. Your posts remind me of those big old 33rpm LPs where there's a bad scratch on one track. The only way to fix it is to lift the needle over the track, or change the record.

Orion402

Young people are cool when given a chance so this silly phrase of 'false autumn' meant to convey that August is not that season could only appeal to those who have lost their youthful ability to be curious, creative and productive. A basic search shows it only emerged a few weeks ago while in the States it means any time before the September Equinox.

Twice today I heard the phrase of meteorological autumn arriving in a few days as opposed to the 'false autumn' in the title of this thread. It is a signature of unreasoning people in Met Eireann and those who conjure up false terms at will. Whether it is in error or fraud is for others to decide.

There is enough visual data from satellites to straighten out technical details which require discipline and firm judgments in an era which is reckless with meteorology, planetary dynamics and all other related topics.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119538902#Comment_119538902

It's definitely fraud.

Orion402

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119539303#Comment_119539303

If society chooses to break a year or orbital circuit of the Sun into 4 distinct seasons, then the Solstices and Equinox milestones are the most physical expression of the midpoints of those seasons while the approximate calendar dates are secondary. It puts meteorology, among other topics, into perspective while not losing sight that planetary dynamics is at the centre of planetary climate.

Americans insist Autumn starts on the September Solstice rather than the beginning of September, so although they recognise the orbital milestone, the relationship between the North/South poles to the planet's divisor and the light/dark hemispheres of the Earth lose all significance. The Irish/British version, including a 'false autumn', is neither here nor there and can only appeal to those who want to move further away from planetary dynamics as the foundation for weather and climate. They probably are not even aware they are doing it, at least consciously, however, that has been the theme with so many other undisciplined misadventures such as changing global warming into climate change modelling.

secman

Ffs...this is a thread about leaves falling earlier than normal due to lack of rain.... but now..... its like complicating the act of boiling an egg for breakfast....😃

beggars_bush

Our small apple tree has shed all its fruit (aided by some pigeons). No apple jelly for us this year.

Orion402

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119540513#Comment_119540513

I have seen leaves turn brown and fall due to too much rain after hurricane Bob in 1991 -

https://twitter.com/NWSNewYorkNY/status/1294759657303453697?

There are always less considerate people who accept crude notions almost immediately and the newly minted 'false autumn' is among them, but then again, what some see as simple is really crude and always will be so.

No doubt the Met Eireann forecasters will re-enforce the idea of meteorological autumn in a few days and by doing so will move the viewer further away from planetary dynamics which create seasonal variations such as the fall of leaves in Autumn. If people love nature enough and live long enough, they will appreciate the change in the shades of green leaves from their emergence in Spring as vibrant green, through summer until they take on a dull colour in Autumn before falling as yellow, red and so on.

People who do things for love are likely to participate in a vocation while those who do things for money (professionals) are less likely to appreciate what is in front of them. It also means that few adults can discuss topics like adults and that, like planetary dynamics, is missing from the whole endeavour.

Graces7

Out here, Atlantic, island off Mayo, all is as normal as we have no deciduous trees.

The blackberries are starting to ripen late August as they always do, and the elderberries, far fewer this year as the high winds decimated the blossom. are ready to pick, on time...

and the rosehips are a splendour on the boundary hedge...

All is timely.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119541464#Comment_119541464

The leaves are falling off the trees due to a drought. Who the hell cares if some people choose to give this the name 'false autumn'.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119541464#Comment_119541464

Met Eireann meteorologists will of course re-enforce the idea of the meteorological seasons as they are not astronomers so it makes sense for them not to push the idea of astronomical seasons.

But I totally appreciate the change in the flora through the seasons, especially our deciduous trees. From the first green leaves of the trees, usually in late March or into April followed by beautiful greens onwards till around mid September. Then the leaves beginning to turn brown (during a non drought season) in the second half of September and into October. To leaves falling from the trees in October and early November, followed by the dormant period from around mid November to the following March.

Orion402

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119543403#Comment_119543403

The leaves are falling off the trees because it is Autumn. The leaves come on trees in Spring so there is neither false Spring nor false Autumn, there is just the great annual cycle which trees live by and therefore the planetary dynamics behind that cycle.

I can tell you what is really false and full of pretence. People who conjure terms into existence without the slightest responsibility for how they present those cycles-

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210922.html

Society is incredibly ill when it comes to its perceptive faculties and yet the observations which relate the motions of the Earth to weather and climate are enjoyable, but in the company of those who manipulate observations (like the APOD nuisances), people experience neither the joys of existence and what makes it possible nor the horror which prevents genuine people from that experience.

pad199207

So when the leaves were falling off the trees last month was it autumn?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119543865#Comment_119543865

I'm sure lots would find your posts false and full of pretence...For what it's worth, people generally stop listening when you start coming out with lines like 'society is ill'.

A large amount of leaves have dropped very early this year due to drought and the trees protecting themselves. This is not a new phenomenon and has been caused by a drought. People are sharing photos and discussing it.

Gaoth Laidir

I have that gobshite on Ignore but I can still see his drivel when he's quoted. Please all ignore him so we don't have to put up with his nonsense anymore.

Orion402

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119544289#Comment_119544289

As this is information sharing at a higher level of consideration and with purpose, if this meteorological community is a sample of wider society then there is a blindness that is difficult to cure.

The seasons, including Autumn, have a specific cyclical cause that does not answer to leaves falling, whether it is warm or not, whether it rains or not or some other extraneous feature. I noticed that you bypassed the NASA explanation which manipulates imaging to show a pivoting light/dark hemispheres off the rotational Equator because modelling using Right Ascension/ Declination demands it where there Sun moves South in Autumn and North in Spring using that monstrosity conjured into existence in the 17th century-

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210922.html

A 'false Autumn' only appeared a few weeks ago and serves no purpose apart from distracting from the dynamics behind Autumn and the other seasons. It is no wonder society is ill with 'climate change modelling' judging from the inability to know what is seriously bad from what is productive and enjoyable. Galileo was right and my testimony is even greater in planetary/solar system affairs than his testimony was-

"I have heard such things put forth as I should blush to repeat--not so much to avoid discrediting their authors (whose names could always be withheld) as to refrain from detracting so greatly from the honour of the human race. In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion In their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads. Such arguments in support of their fixed idea as they hit upon themselves or hear set forth by others, no matter how simple and stupid these may be, gain their instant acceptance and applause. On the other hand, whatever is brought forward against it, however ingenious and conclusive, they receive with disdain or with hot rage--if indeed it does not make them ill." Galileo

legrand

think I've just identified a certain poster here.

Oneiric 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119544721#Comment_119544721

The 'false Autumn' claim is just a way of expressing the phenomena going on with the leaves at the moment. We all understand what it means so this undue criticism of the term is just a little bit overly pedantic.

Orion402

There are always those who are bound to declare the joys of nature in poem and in song for a better world and they delight me as much as the wet blanket of dire predictions dismay me as they should the true human.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-pP_dCenJA

Pouring effort in explaining cyclical nature whether as the seasons or the cyclical dynamics behind it is a privilege and not a right, a vocation and not a profession. I hope young people learn this is instead of being perceptively stillborn with terms such as climate change, false seasons, sidereal day or some other misadventure with timekeeping common in our era.

It is passion for what is true and creative that will bring humanity back to where our ancestors are not mocked or vandalised rather than exploiting weather and climate for lucrative ends. Enjoy Elvis and what passion feels like for those who can be inspired and inspiring.

highdef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119544721#Comment_119544721

If this meteorological community discussing metrological topics in a metrological section of Boards is causing you some mental anguish, why don't you got and **** (f.u.c.k) off to the astronomy section of Boards, where all all things astronomy related are discussed there which is right up your alley?

Oh wait, your can't because you've apparently been banned from that section of Boards. I can't specify why as I don't know exactly why and it would be of ill judgement for me to speculate but if you could kindly make some effort to go back to that section of Boards, it would be most appreciated by the majority here in the meteorological section of Boards.

The Mods here appear to do **** (f.u.c.k) all to monitor so it seems that this section of Boards has become a free for all

Billcarson

It's pretty obvious the leaves changing colour and falling this early is down to lack of rainfall. They didn't change colour or start to fall early this time last year or most other years. I remember 2003 a similar thing happened, due to the hot summer that year.

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119544975#Comment_119544975

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119545622#Comment_119545622

Agreed - it's a phrase coined up to describe an action which we observe, no different to how we say we "google" something on the internet, or we go down the shop to "buy a bag of taytos", even though you might pick up a bag of Walkers instead of the original Tayto brand!

The reaction to the term "False Autumn" is a bit OTT and is borderline mirroring a reaction I'd expect from some woke Twitter handle on the rampage looking for offence.

Cumhachtach

When the Elvis 68 Comeback Tour appears on a meteorological thread you know something isn't right. A thread about leaves falling prematurely. Talk of the youth being 'cool' and your planetary hobby being a vocation as opposed to 'professional' meteorologists naming seasons etc is surreal stuff. Very self indulgent posts, with yourself as some sort of visionary and everyone else idiotic.

Orion I don't want to be too hard on you as I don't think you're well at present. Maybe time to look after yourself.

joebloggs32

I was out walking this evening a stretch that I normally wouldn't. I was gobsmacked by the amount of leaves down.

Orion402

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119545687#Comment_119545687

The idea of meteorological Autumn as opposed to an astronomical Autumn is a fraudulent and disruptive as a 'false autumn' . The 'false autumn' term only popped into existence a few weeks ago in the UK to support stupid notion of climate change modelling and related hysteria.

I see that no reader has come forward to determine when Autumn begins other than go along with the American classification where it occurs on the September Equinox whereas had readers followed the proper principles, they would discover that the Solstice and Equinox points determine the midpoints of the seasons.

I don't want readers to be ashamed, I recommend discipline when acquiring pseudo-academic terms with no intent other than disruption.

pad199207

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119545844#Comment_119545844

Indeed! White beam in particular here have nearly lost 50% of the leaves and the rest left on the tree are nearly all brown.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119544277#Comment_119544277

No; they were simply responding perforce to dry weather.

We don't have strict seasons here in Ireland and this "early autumn" idea is indeed nonsense and a seeking after novelty... So we have infinite variety in seasonal weather