Fall foliage to be more ‘vibrant,’ last longer this year in Ontario

Fall 2025 isn’t officially here yet, but the foliage  is arriving earlier than usual and experts predict it will be even more beautiful in some areas.

“I think it’ll be may be a fall to remember,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist Dave Phillips, adding, “I think what’s coming is kind of a gorgeous colour chain season.”

Phillips said he expects fiery reds, deep purples and golden yellows.

To assess the vibrancy of the colour change season, he pointed to a few key factors.

“I look at what was the weather during the leafing season, late spring, summer, and then I look at the weather during the viewing season when the trees are out,” he said.

As for why the foliage is starting sooner this year, Global News chief meteorologist Anthony Farnell says the dry summer weather combined with the heat stressed many trees.

“The mercury has topped 30 degrees on 24 different occasions and it’s more than just heat it’s the fact that it’s been so dry … we’re dealing with a rainfall deficit where we are about 60 per cent of average rainfall for the summer season so all of this stresses the trees,” he explained.

When the trees feel the stress, added Farnell, leaves change colour earlier than normal.

At Evergreen Brick Works in the heart of Toronto’s Don Valley, leaf peepers are already out photographing the seasonal transformation.

“It was earlier than I expected these leaves to change and our trees lose all their leaves at once in the Spring and they immediately grow back so I am just surprised that it was turning all these different colours,” a traveller from Florida told Global News.

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Tyler Talbot, manager of retail and visitor engagement at Brick Works, said while the colours have begun to change along the edges of the trees, he expects the peak to come around October 15.

“From what I experienced, I’ve been here for about five years, it’s a little bit different each and every year but it’s looking like a really good season coming up,” he said.

Meanwhile, Phillips is advising people not to wait to get out and see the fall colours.

“Don’t procrastinate. Sometimes the season can (just) end … it’s here and then it’s gone. So if you wake up, don’t plan your colour view season two weeks in advance because you could have a hurricane in there, you could have frost, you could have snow. I mean my gosh, it’s a very fickle kind of a season,” he said.

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