What impact has summer drought had on autumn colour?

The summer drought was forecast to wreck autumn, but the reality has depended on location and tree species. Meanwhile, it could be a bumper autumn for fungi.

The hottest summer on record was meant to wreck Britain’s autumn colour, with heat-stressed trees shedding early and little colour to follow.

But in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley, the drought has merely delayed the colour.

Naturalist Ed Drewitt, the area’s ‘chief leaf peeper’, expects peak colour in the first week of November, about a week later than in recent years.

I’ve been surprised by how green the forest still is compared with 2024 and 2025.Though trees in exposed spots in the forest dropped leaves in August, the majority sat on deep roots in soils that hold water far longer

than open farmland. When the rain returned in late August and September they recovered, he explained.”The trees perked up and made up for lost time by staying greener for longer,” Drewitt explained. “I’ve been surprised by how green the

forest still is compared with 2024 and 2025,” he said.As the temperatures drop and the nights draw in, autumn will catch up, and the forest will turn from ‘a palette of greens to …….