An unusual occurrence is happening in the midwest this fall, with trees dropping leaves later than ever expected.  This happened in 1992 as well, with many leaves not falling until the last week of October.  That year, we had a crazy blizzard snowstorm on Halloween, which corresponded with the Perfect Storm that took down the Andrea Gail.  Remember the movie?  We are even later with leaves not turning, staying green and trees are just not dropping leaves no matter how windy it gets.  True, there are about 1/2 the trees barren with bare branches, and they have been dropping leaves at an easy clip.  The other half, are still really not ready to drop.

Dropping Leaves Before Snows

Our Dog Keesha Before the Halloween Storm

Snow came to the midwest last night, and has come over the last month in northern parts of Minnesota and South Central South Dakota.  Early in October, Deadwood had over 50 inches of wet, thick snow.  All the trees had yet to find themselves at a point of dropping leaves before this occurrence, so power outages were a problem.  The problem with late fall power outages is you have cold weather, and you also have no heat because your furnace can’t run.  This is almost a health concern for many, and lots of people will find a place to stay with friends or family who are luckier, or they camp out at a hotel until the situation improves.  The real issue is that you just can’t get to all the chores that you need to before winter arrives.

Winter comes before trees are dropping leaves

What a bummer it is to see your yard clean, and then be enveloped by half of your tree’s leaves with one day of wind.  Then, to see the snow come and cover that already messy ground, with no real hope of cleanup until spring.  This is a tricky thing, as you want to clean your yard before the snow comes, to preserve your grass, and ensure it doesn’t die.  Leaves will suffocate the grass quickly, and cause mold and viruses in your yard.  Bushes and plantings around your yard, need to be wintered before you cover them, so don’t add any wind cover around the base of any new bushes until the winter has really set in.  Trees need to find time for dropping leaves at a natural pace, and heavy snows are hard on trees and the ground cover.

Rake until the soil is Frozen : Trees are Dropping Leaves later in 2013

I spoke to my Dad about this, and he hasn’t ever seen it this late.  We like to keep track of the times we do things each year, and so far, he and I compared notes, and we still have about half of our leaves on the trees.  When are the trees going to go about dropping leaves this year?  Maybe with the big snow storm that is predicted in the middle of November, but not this week.  They are holding tight to green leaves, and bowing under the pressure of the icy snow that hit us last night.  Many trees have yet to see themselves dropping leaves, even though it feels alot like winter is here.