Colorful leaves are a true highlight of everything cool in Michigan during the fall. The most common question is "When will we reach our peak color?"

The answer to that is always fluid from year to year, but this year, we have some solid clues as to when peak color should arrive, but they're off due to some not-so-great weather reasons.

First, we need to know why leaves change color. Different chemicals in the leaves will give off different colors. For example, chlorophyll is what makes our leaves green all summer long.

As cool and wet conditions in the fall occur (usually), this breaks down. Xanthophyll turns leaves yellow, and carotene turns leaves a brilliant orange, just like what makes carrots orange. Anthocyanin turns leaves a stunning red that tends to be one of the favorites.

Each of these is more prominent depending on moisture content, temperature from day to night, and a few other factors like drought stress or even summer rainfall.

Now for the tough part, our trees are stressed.

Our summer may not have ranked high for overall heat, but the much higher temperatures for July and August, combined with the lack of rainfall overall, have slightly delayed the expected peak time for colors due to tree stress.

And yes, there were several flash flood issues this summer, but that is an all-at-once issue, not an overall moisture content for the summer as a season.

You can actually see some trees with color already, but that is also due to stress.

So, when is peak color expected? We're seeing low color in parts of the Upper Peninsula now, which is slightly on time.

Southeast Michigan can expect fall colors to peak around the last week of October, so close to Halloween. This only happens if leaves have not fallen yet, which any drought conditions or excess stress can cause to happen before peak color.

We've been dry this past week, and this week also looks dry, to the point that drought conditions may begin to appear in portions of Southeast Michigan.

Peak color is likely as long as rain arrives sooner rather than later, so stay up-to-date with color reports to see how we're doing with staying on track.

Fall colors in Southeast Michigan. When will we see them?