By: Ryan Fannock
September 22, 2014
Well, we've made it through 265 days of 2014!! With Summer coming to a close, it's time to start thinking about the colder months ahead. Let's face it, our average temperatures and hours of daylight are dwindling with each day that passes. To the left is a chart showing you our sunrise, sunset, average high, and average low temp in Schuylkill County through December 22nd. Fall is a season of many firsts. From first frost to first freeze to first snowflakes, it's a beautiful season! Another thing I'd like to mention is Fall Foliage. I've had quite a few reports of leaves changing as early as the last week of August this year. Believe it or not, that's actually normal. There's always a few trees that like to kick off Fall a little bit early. Those trees will lose their leaves much earlier than the rest. As we head into October, green leaves will be a thing of the past. We typically peak in color during Mid-October in Schuylkill County. Below is a map which shows "typical peak times" across the entire Northeast.
Like I mentioned earlier, we will see our first snowflakes...but when? Usually our first inch of snow will fall during the month of December. As you may know, there's quite a bit of elevation in Schuylkill County. Elevated areas tend to see that first inch in late November. However, we all know it can snow as early as October! Remember October of 2011? In Tamaqua, I recorded 12 inches of heavy wet snow from that storm. We still had plenty of leaves on the trees which caused widespread power outages throughout the area. Below is a picture from Railroad Street in Tamaqua that year.
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