Seekers of autumn color in Japan had to wait a bit longer in 2024. The season for “Momijigari,” or “red leaf hunting,” was forecast to arrive later than normal, potentially setting new records for its delayed appearance in some places.
Autumn hues tinged the slopes of Japan’s Kii Mountains on December 2, when the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image. It is not possible to know which species contributed to the colorful display based on this image alone, but across the country, ginkgo and maple are among the trees that commonly produce brilliant fall colors.
In an average year in Wakayama, a nearby city west of this scene, yellows and reds begin appearing on November 23 and December 6, respectively. According to a late-November forecast published by the Japan Meteorological Corporation, the arrival of yellows in that city lagged the average by four days, while reds were 12 days later than average.
Above-average heat in 2024 likely contributed to the late arrival of leaf-hunting season. In addition to waning daylight hours, cooler temperatures signal a tree to stop producing chlorophyll, which allows red, orange, and yellow pigments to show through. Temperatures from June through August tied summer 2023 as Japan’s hottest summer since comparable records began in 1898, according to weather station observations. Above-average heat continued to stifle the country’s cities and mountainous regions into the fall and was suspected to play a role in the record-late appearance of snow on Mount Fuji in early November.
For centuries, people have traveled to the mountains to enjoy the colors of autumn, including around Mount Tamaki, shown in the photo above. The Kii Mountains have also drawn people to sacred sites nestled in the dense forests. Ancient pilgrimage routes from the cities of Nara and Kyoto lead to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples dating back as far as the 9th century. The landscape is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photo by Roderick Eime. Story by Lindsey Doermann.
