Heat Wave: Trees Change Colors Early From High Temperatures (VIDEO)

As summer heat waves continue to grip the nation in what is on track to become the hottest year on record, some cities are starting to witness unusual side effects. This clip from CNN shows how leaves in Little Rock, Arkansas are appearing to take on their fall colors way ahead of schedule, unable to brace the harsh temperatures.

Bryan Roseberry of Horticare Nursery tells CNN, "When you start to see your trees changing colors and falling leaves, yeah, you know it's hot."

WATCH:

Comments

[Gail Zawacki]

06:47 PM on 08/14/2010

The trees turned fall color a month early in New Jersey in 2009, after a cool and rainy summer.

It's ozone. Ordinary every day mundane ever-increasing ozone, pollution from burning fuels.

www.witsendnj.blogspot.com

[Rick Eriksen]

12:04 PM on 08/09/2010

Wait until it turns everything into a desert...good news is not much raking involved in the desert...

[cache]

07:59 PM on 08/08/2010

Yesterday I noticed sumac and sassafras leaves changing. They are usually the first leaves in the Ozark highlands to turn, but this is 4 weeks premature. Very unusual.

[realpolitic]

05:36 AM on 08/07/2010

Wow, the leaves are roasting right on the trees.

[Jarrod Fitch]

05:12 AM on 08/07/2010

This short film on climate changes illustrates the evolving habitat of Antartica: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/e7162a6f7a/the-plight-of-the-polar-bear

[ventana]

08:15 AM on 08/24/2010

Polar Bears in Antarctica, huh? It's worse than we thought.

[Overtone]

10:31 AM on 08/06/2010

Washington fiddles while earth burns!

An unrecognized life-threatening emergency needs all concerned to act, without delay!.

400 parts per million of carbon has recently been found to be the Arctic Tipping Point, which could conceivably endanger us all. We are approaching 390ppm and adding 2ppm each year. As you know, the safe limit is 350ppm. Note that figure is 400ppm!!!

At 450ppm a study released this week states we must begin winding down carbon no later than 2015. At 400ppm we are all facing a dire and very immediate emergency!!!

Renewable energy systems that can be deployed rapidly should now be produced on a 24/7 basis. We should provide whatever incentives are necessary to make that possible. See A 5 Point Program at http://www.aesopinstitute.org

Little known and hard to fathom breakthroughs involving radically new energy technologies can help to supersede fossil fuels much more rapidly than conventional wisdom suggests might be possible.

See Moving Beyond Oil on the Aesop website.

The immediate need is to find practical ways to initiate emergency actions that avoid a catastrophic loss of life.

This is more threatening to Americans than the attack that took place on Pearl Harbor.

Nature does not care if you do not believe in Global Warming.

The heat is breaking all records world-wide! Nothing short of an all-out emergency program seems likely to suffice!

[Chhana Hen]

07:45 AM on 08/06/2010

Oh my god , now the summer is very hot not only the people and also the tree and leaf too that make the leaves turn the fall colors ... ho hoo...... So people must keep the temperature by reducing the object that effect to temperature.

[rougebaisers]

06:16 AM on 08/06/2010

Nonsense. We've had hot and rainy summers before. Trees and plants are being affected by the poisons pulled off the gulf AFTER it rains. These aren't drought stricken areas by any means with all the rain we've been getting. Trees btw, are a reflection of what is happening in US.

[little old lady]

11:53 PM on 08/08/2010

rouge, you say what? "Trees btw, are a reflection of what is happening in US. " What does that mean?

[MysticInd]

09:51 PM on 08/05/2010

I noticed that going on in MN as well; and wondered why do they think it's fall. I'm waiting on a bumper Tomato Crop!

[StephenBP]

09:06 PM on 08/05/2010

No,no no! You have it all wrong! Ph.D. George Will has indicated that we are in the midst of global cooling! And he has a Ph.D.! In Politics! That means that his pronouncements on global warming are worth more that the musings of mere Ph.D. climatologists, physicists, or atmospheric scientists! That is the power of a Ph.D in Politics kids! If you have a Ph.D. in politics and you work for the Wall Street Journal, and have support of the right wing uber-class, you have the ears of many or most of the world's MBA's, and they all believe every word you say! Additionally, you will be in synchrony with such stalwart intellects are Rush Lilmbaugh! Sean Hannity! Glenn Beck!.There is not global warming. If there were, it would hurt the economy.


Extremely heavy snark extremely off.

[little old lady]

11:50 PM on 08/08/2010

Patience Stephen, it will hurt the economy quite soon

[doxienan]

05:23 PM on 08/05/2010

I'm in New England. We haven't had rain in weeks and the leaves are turning yellow, shriveling up and dropping off.

I think we've reached the climate tipping point. With the wheat shortages around the world and the horrible floods in SE Asia wiping out their crops, should we be concerned about food prices skyrocketing and shortages?

[lena08]

08:36 PM on 08/05/2010

Russia stopped exporting grain. Look for bread prices to skyrocket. They were already selling at $6 and change before this.

[PlayTOE]

05:16 PM on 08/05/2010

Could this be a sign of climate change? Trees that cannot adapt to the shifting temperature range ...

[Cheapthrills]

12:07 PM on 08/09/2010

They are adapting...that is why the colors are changing.

[PlayTOE]

01:28 PM on 08/09/2010

Sorry Cheapthrills they are not adapting, they are in distress.
This is a picture of what may happen if/as the climate keeps warming.

Adapting is when southern species move north to take over new habitat, or when the few surviving distressed trees begin repopulating the landscape with offspring having a different range of growth qualities.

[Benjo333]

03:11 PM on 08/05/2010

I live in Minnesota and I saw the same damn oak tree that always goes first turn last week. Boy that makes me mad...

[calltoaction]

01:51 PM on 08/05/2010

no global warming here.

[Ssebo]

02:00 PM on 08/05/2010

Where's that? Mars?

[way2muchsense]

03:06 PM on 08/05/2010

The inside of his air-conditioned work cubicle.

[janie@atthelake]

04:04 PM on 08/05/2010

Sarah Palin's mind more likely.