If the fall colors seem particularly intense this year, you're right. And it's not just because the pandemic has made you notice them more.
If it seems like nature's paint palette has been especially vivid this fall in Wisconsin, it's not a colorful mirage.
Trees throughout the state have transformed into blazingly bright colors ranging from scarlet and magenta to canary yellow and tangerine.
Of course, that happens every year as trees stop producing chlorophyll and prepare for winter. But some autumns the colors are subdued and sometimes they're eye-poppingly brilliant.
And no, this year's display doesn't just seem better than normal because people coping with the coronavirus pandemic are spending more time outdoors and noticing the intense arboreal splendor.
This autumn, the three-part recipe for color has gelled just so.
Fall colors are influenced by chemical changes in leaf pigments, length of nights and overall weather, said Colleen Matula, forest silviculturist/ecologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources division of forestry.
"The two factors this year seem to be the chemical changes are happening a little faster than normal and the weather is delaying" dropping of leaves, Matula said Wednesday.
The optimum weather for fall colors to stick around longer are sunny days and cool nights — but not too cool.
The last two weeks in Milwaukee have featured half of the days with sunny or partly sunny skies, said Sarah Marquardt, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan.
With a couple of exceptions, night-time temperatures have hovered around 50, warmer than the normal 44 degrees for this time of year, Marquardt said.
The nice weather came courtesy of the jet stream flowing to the north of Wisconsin which allowed warmer air to funnel up from the Gulf of Mexico.
"We have been in a pattern where we've had warmer air coming in from the south for the last few weeks," said Marquardt.
Apparently trees — all 17 million acres in Wisconsin — are loving it.
All deciduous trees manufacture chlorophyll during the spring and summer by capturing sunlight and turning it into sugar. Chlorophyll is why leaves are green. Even though the other colors are always present in leaves, they aren't seen until the fall because green chlorophyll is a much more powerful pigment, explained Matulla.
But as nights get longer and there's less daylight, chlorophyll production slows down and pulls back the curtain on other colors lurking in leaves.
Sugar maples, aspens and birches don yellow and orange coats while red maples, dogwoods and sumac switch to deep red and purple.
Tree health is also a factor. Sometimes early in the fall trees close to wetlands change color first because they may be stressed from flooded root systems. Droughts can affect leaf color.
"Color changes are a matter of self preservation for trees. It's signaling it's time to slow down and get ready for hibernation like animals," said Matula. "If they kept on cranking out sugar production, that's a lot of energy for a tree to maintain its leaves."
While northern Wisconsin is past its peak, southern Wisconsin is still in the midst of its annual colorful explosion.
However, if you haven't gotten out for a gander, don't wait. Colder nights and strong winds are methodically stripping trees of their colorful leaves.
That means soon Wisconsinites will reach the part of autumn that's not so nice, when the countryside is filled with bare trees waiting for the first snow to fall.