Forecasters Predict a Brilliant — if Brief — Foliage Season

BURLINGTON, Vt. - New England's innkeepers have reason to smile this Labor Day: leaf watchers say a wet summer followed by cooling nights is setting up one of the most vivid fall foliage seasons in years.

The recipe for spectacular color is well known — a growing season with steady rain, followed by sunny autumn days and cool, frostless nights — and Vermont's foresters say this year is delivering it.

Peak color typically arrives in northern New England in late September and rolls south through October. State tourism offices have opened their foliage hotlines and posted driving routes, expecting heavy traffic after two muted years.

The season is serious business: fall tourism is worth more than $1 billion to New England, and a washed-out October can cripple country inns.

The one caveat is brevity. "Brilliant years are often short years," a University of Vermont biologist said. "The trees hold nothing back, and then it's over. Book early and drive slow."

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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