When Watsonville's Leaves Are Best: 2020 Fall Foliage Peak Map
WATSONVILLE, CA — Fall is just around the corner, so get ready for pumpkin spice everything, apple picking, pumpkin carving — and of course — green tree leaves shifting to the breathtakingly beautiful, fiery colors of autumn.
Anxious to see the leaves change? Us too. Now, the 2020 Fall Foliage Prediction Map is out so you can get ready to see autumn in all its splendor along the Central Coast and across the country.
The first day of fall is still weeks away, but the autumnal equinox isn’t the best measure of when foliage will turn to blazing reds, vibrant oranges and sunny yellows in Santa Cruz County.
No predictive tool is 100 percent accurate, but using the newly released interactive “2020 Fall Foliage Prediction Map” can give you a pretty good shot at seeing autumn leaves at the peak of their splendor.
In Watsonville, leaves are forecast to start changing the week of Oct. 12, then hit their peak Nov. 2. By Nov. 9, trees are forecast to be past their peak colors.
Developed as a tool to help vacationers book lodging and other accommodations in the Smoky Mountains, which rise above the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the Fall Foliage Prediction Map from SmokyMountains.com provides peak leaf change predictions for the entire continental United States.
To use the map, simply slide the scale to the right to see when leaves will peak in your state. Zero in on your county, and you’ll be able to decide whether it’s best to plan a northern, southern, eastern or western route.
Watsonville has some great vistas to view fall leaves — just be sure to visit the park website before you head out for the latest coronavirus social distancing guidelines. Depending on fire conditions, some parks may be closed due to fire risk.
Here are a few prime spots in Watsonville and elsewhere in Santa Cruz County:
Live Oak: Moran Lake Park (East Cliff Drive near 26th Ave.)
Santa Cruz: DeLaveaga Park (855 Branciforte Dr.), Garfield Park (634 Almar Ave.), Harvey West Park (326 Evergreen St.), Neary Lagoon (110 California St.), Pogonip (333 Gold Club Dr.), Riverside Gardens (262 San Lorenzo Blvd.), Westlake Park (Bradley Drive, off of Spring Street)
Soquel: Lions Park (2665 S. Main St.)
Watsonville: Atri Park (602 Atri Ct.), Bronte Park (615 Bronte Ave.), City Plaza Park (350 Main St.), Pinto Lake Park (757 Green Valley Road), Ramsay Park (1301 Main St.), Scott Park (3101 Freedom Blvd.)
Do you have another favorite spot that's not on this list? Comment below!
The major factors that determine the fall foliage peak are sunlight, precipitation, soil moisture and temperature. The map takes in 50,000 predictive data sets, then churns out a county-by-county analysis of when the fall peak will occur, according to SmokyMountains.com co-founder David Angotti, an expert on statistics.
The data comes from a variety of sources including historical precipitation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration precipitation forecasts, elevation, actual temperatures, temperature forecasts and average daylight exposure to develop each county’s fall baseline date.
Angotti said improvements in algorithms used in the map combined with meteorological data sources have improved the reliability of the map, though he cautioned accurate meteorological predictions are “somewhat elusive and never 100 percent accurate.”
“However, the good news is that the combination of nearly a decade of experience combined with great meteorological data sources ensures we achieve a higher accuracy over time,” he said in a news release.
A new map is created every year due to dramatic changes from one year to the next, the release said.
What Causes The Different Colors
You probably remember from science class that the color change all starts with photosynthesis. Leaves constantly churn out chlorophyll — a key component in a plant’s ability to turn sunlight into the glucose it needs to thrive — from spring through early fall. Those cells saturate the leaves, making them appear green to the human eye.
But leaves aren’t green at all. Autumn is the time for leaves’ big reveal: their true color, unveiled as chlorophyll production grinds to a halt. The colors in fall’s breathtaking tapestry are influenced by other compounds, according to the national park’s website.
Beta carotene, the same pigment that makes carrots orange, reflects the yellow and red light from the sun and gives leaves an orange hue.
The production of anthocyanin, which gives leaves their vivid red color, ramps up in the fall, protecting and prolonging the leaf’s life on a tree throughout autumn.
And those yellows that make you feel as if you’re walking in a ray of sunshine?
They’re produced by flavonol, which is part of the flavonoid protein family. It’s always present in leaves but doesn’t show itself until chlorophyll production begins to slow.
This article originally appeared on the Watsonville Patch
