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Fall colors could be less vibrant again this year

Freeimages.com/Gregory Morris

You may have to go to the Adirondacks to see the most vibrant colors this fall.

If the relatively warm and wet weather continues for the next several weeks, the fall foliage season will be delayed and less vibrant than normal in Rochester and the Finger Lakes and other parts of upstate New York.

That's the word from Taryn Bauerle, an associate professor of plant science at Cornell University.

The same thing happened last year, but Bauerle says this isn't harmful to trees.

"The trees are somewhat fooled into thinking that's it's still just a normal growing season and so they continue to make chlorophyll, which is the green pigment that we see in their leaves, and they continue to grow happily, basically,” she said. “What we find is that these warm, wet conditions delay the onset of the fall color change."

Instead of deeper reds and purples, Bauerle says we can expect to see more mild yellows and oranges.

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.