It's a bit chilly here tonight.

The temperature right now is 49 degrees.  The sky is clear and a low of 37 to 42 is predicted for tonight. 

Today it seemed like tourists switched suddenly from t-shirts and shorts to thick sweaters and fall jackets.  A couple of guys walked into my real estate office this afternoon looking for firewood for their campsite at the State Park.  We chatted briefly about real estate prices and they took a brochure and business card with them.  I gave them a small bundle of split oak for their campfire and in return, they left me a couple bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale, a pretty fair trade.

Leaves are changing here already.  It's perhaps more noticeable on the northwest side of Madeline Island, but you'll see trees aflame in red and orange along South Shore Road and Big Bay Road as well.  There's a kind of luminous orange that appears at this time of year which has the curious property of bathing everything around it in color.  Whether by reflection or refraction, you'll notice in the late afternoon and evening that these red-orange "flame trees" almost seem to give off their own light.

The reds, oranges, yellows appear sporadically as you drive around the Island, but they're more apparent on the nearby mainland.  Drive west on Highway 13, beyond Herbster and Port Wing, and you'll see more widespread change in the overall color of the mixed hardwoods flanking the highway.

Our fall color season on Madeline Island tends to last longer than in other locales, primarily because the surrounding lake moderates our temperature, probably giving trees the false impression that it's warmer outside than the actual area temperature.  The lake effect slows down the onset of frost and promotes more moderate air temperatures, because the water holds its thermal absorption and stays warmer than the air as late fall turns into winter.

Anyway, this weekend seems to be heralding the arrival of Fall.  The Bayfield Apple Festival is two weeks away and we should see peak color by the time it opens.