Currently in D.C. — September 25, 2023: Fall is here and the clouds continue

The weather, currently.

Wow. What a weekend. I don’t know about you, but I was very excited to dust-off my collection of hoodies. Today the cloudy weather continues. The highest will be 65°F and it will drop to 59°F at night with some intermittent rain. With fall officially here, I haven't stopped thinking about its cultural representations. In the United States we see pumpkins everywhere, orange and yellow leaves, and Halloween decorations everywhere. But other countries experience it differently.

In Mexico, where I grew up, the markets get filled with marigold flowers, copal incense and bread of the dead in preparation for the Day of the Dead. In Nepal this is the flowering season and it’s also common to see marigolds with lots of other types of flowers. There are also big piles of dried paddy plants left after farmers harvested the rice, and they divide the season in two: Early Autumn, when the clear blue skies are perfect for trekking, and Late Autumn, with cooler weather.

In all it’s different versions, this continues to be my favorite season of the year! Joan Manuel Serrat describes the feeling in his song Balada de Otoño (Autumn’s Ballad): “A ballad in autumn, a sad song of melancholy that is born as the day dies. A ballad in autumn.”

— Myriam Vidal Valero

What you need to know, currently.

Fall is here, and so far the trees are not disappointing this year.

My new favorite fall leaf-peeping guide is Explore Fall, which daily auto-generates a 7-day forecasted fall-colors map on almost a neighborhood scale based on weather, soil moisture, sunlight, and citizen science observations for the entire lower 48 states (sorry, no Canada yet).

Here in Minnesota, I tested out the algorithm on a few hikes this weekend and the leaves were stellar. It’s that time of year where the leaves seem to change almost hour-by-hour, so if you have a chance to get out there, don’t miss it.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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One of my favorite organizations, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, serves as a hub of mutual aid efforts focused on climate action in emergencies — like Hurricane season. Find mutual aid network near you and join, or donate to support networks in Florida:

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