Autumn Begins in August
In the Finger Lakes, fall doesn’t arrive all at once. It begins quietly.
AUTUMN WATCH | 11 LAKES MAGAZINE
There is a moment every August in the Finger Lakes when summer still owns the calendar, but something outside has changed.
The afternoons remain warm. Boats still cross the lakes. Farm stands are piled with sweet corn, tomatoes and peaches. Families are still squeezing in one more weekend at the cottage.
But early in the morning, the air feels different.
It is cooler along the water. Mist hangs over the valleys a little longer. The shadows stretch farther across the fields. And here and there, among thousands of green leaves, a single branch has begun to turn.
Autumn has arrived — just not officially.
The First Signs Are Easy to Miss
We tend to think of a Finger Lakes autumn as a grand event: hillsides blazing red and orange, pumpkins stacked outside farm markets, cider in the press and vineyards glowing gold beneath an October sky.
But the season begins much more quietly.
By the second half of August, daylight is already noticeably shorter than it was around the summer solstice. Sunrise comes later. Sunset arrives earlier. Nights have more time to cool the valleys, fields and lakeshores.
Plants notice.
Animals notice.
Farmers notice.
And anyone who steps outside with a cup of coffee early enough will probably notice, too.
A maple at the edge of a wetland may show its first red leaves. Goldenrod brightens roadsides that were almost entirely green a few weeks earlier. Apples begin weighing down orchard branches. Cornfields lose some of their deep midsummer color.
These aren’t yet the spectacular scenes that draw leaf-peepers from across the Northeast.
They are the opening notes.
The Lakes Begin to Change
Water gives the Finger Lakes their character, and it also gives autumn here a distinctive rhythm.
After months of summer warmth, the lakes retain heat even as nights become cooler. On calm mornings, that contrast can help create the wisps of mist and fog that drift across coves and valleys.
It is one of the most beautiful transitions of the year.
A lake that sparkled beneath a bright July afternoon can look completely different at seven o’clock on an August morning — quiet, silver and almost hidden beneath the mist.
By midmorning, summer often returns.
The fog disappears. Temperatures rise. Boats head onto the water.
But the morning has already revealed what’s coming.
Harvest Season Is Stirring
Across Finger Lakes farm country, late August also marks a shift in the agricultural calendar.
Summer produce is still abundant, but the foods we associate with autumn are beginning to appear.
Early apples arrive at farm stands. Vineyards move closer to harvest. Pumpkins continue ripening beneath broad green leaves. Roadside markets slowly transition from berries and summer vegetables toward apples, squash and other late-season crops.
The vineyards provide another subtle signal.
Soon, grape harvest will become one of the defining activities of the region. Crews will move through rows that have spent the summer soaking up the sun, wineries will begin receiving fruit, and another Finger Lakes vintage will make its way from vineyard to cellar.
For now, though, there is anticipation.
The harvest is close.
Listen to the Evening
Autumn can sometimes be heard before it can be seen.
Late-August evenings have their own soundtrack.
Crickets and katydids fill the darkness. Geese begin appearing overhead with greater regularity. Birds that nested here during summer start preparing for migration, while others begin passing through the Finger Lakes on journeys stretching hundreds or even thousands of miles.
The evening itself seems quieter.
Porch lights come on a little earlier.
Dinner outside requires a sweater once the sun disappears.
Windows that stayed open through July nights may be pulled shut before morning.
None of these changes announces the arrival of fall.
Together, they make it unmistakable.
One Red Leaf
Perhaps the best symbol of late August in the Finger Lakes isn’t an entire hillside of color.
It’s one leaf.
Look along the edge of a swamp, beside a country road or across an old hedgerow and eventually you’ll find it: a flash of red surrounded by green.
Then another.
And another.
Within weeks, those isolated patches will spread across the hills surrounding Cayuga, Seneca, Keuka, Canandaigua and the other Finger Lakes.
The transformation will eventually become impossible to miss.
But there is something special about seeing it begin.
Don’t Rush Summer Away
Late August creates an unusual overlap in the Finger Lakes.
You can buy peaches and early apples on the same afternoon.
You can spend the day swimming and need a sweatshirt that evening.
You can paddle beneath completely green hills and spot the first scarlet maple along the shoreline.
Summer hasn’t ended.
And autumn hasn’t fully arrived.
For a few weeks, we get both.
That may be why this time of year deserves more attention than it receives. October gets the photographs and postcards, but late August gives us something quieter: the opportunity to watch an entire landscape begin changing almost imperceptibly.
Autumn Watch Begins
Over the coming weeks, 11 Lakes Magazine’s Autumn Watch will follow that transformation across the Finger Lakes.
We’ll watch the first color appear on the hillsides. We’ll visit orchards, farm markets and vineyards as harvest season gathers momentum. We’ll follow fall festivals, scenic drives, waterfalls, wildlife and those small seasonal moments that tell us another Finger Lakes autumn has arrived.
Eventually there will be brilliant foliage.
There will be pumpkins on porches and apples in baskets.
There will be cool afternoons, steaming mugs and hills painted in October color.
But that’s later.
For now, look closely at the maple beside the road.
Step outside early tomorrow morning.
Watch the mist rising from the lake.
Because in the Finger Lakes, autumn doesn’t begin with the calendar.
It begins in August.
— 11 Lakes Magazine | Stories from the Finger Lakes