TRANSYLVANIA COUNTY, North Carolina — About 5,500 feet above sea level — the magic elevation where fall color first splashes each year — the mid-September foliage along the Blue Ridge Parkway was still green as far as the eye could see and even the odd yellow specks on the landscape were just signs of drought stress.
But even as Clemson University forest ecologist Don Hagan made his annual scouting trip into Transylvania County for this fall’s foliage forecast, the temperature dropped steadily as the elevation changed, giving way from 90-plus degrees on the Clemson campus to something more autumnal in the southern Appalachians.
To Hagan, who has been making fall foliage predictions for seven years, all signs pointed to the potential for a brilliant fall color season ahead … despite the mixed signals the trees are currently receiving from the Carolina climate.