Leaf-Alanche!

Perspective is everything. For some, things are always looking up. (I like to think I'm a glass half-full kinda guy.)When I'm playing photographer I try to get positive results on the negatives (or digital memory card) by looking up and down. This shot is the Japanese Maple in front of our house. It's only about 4 feet tall, but by lying on the sidewalk and looking up I was able to capture the sunlit leaves against the blue November sky.
Tuesday the trees out front had almost all their leaves. Yesterday afternoon when I drove home it was like colored snowfall as the leaves were floating downward in chaotic spirals. The southwest winds that pumped our high to a record breaking 81 also caused a "Leaf-Alanche". The trees out front are now virtually bare. This morning when Johnny Parks our Channel 3 Skywatcher from Ringgold, Georgia called, he said, "It looks like the roads here have been repaved with leaves." Johnny had 2/10" of rain at his house. Slightly more than 1/10 here at Channel 3 and at Chattanooga's airport.
Red Flag Warnings have been posted today for North Georgia and Alabama meaning it's too dry and windy for any outdoor burning. And unless this season turns around soon, these fire danger forecasts are likely to become the norm anytime it's windy this Autumn.
There will be another system heading our way for late Sunday into Monday that should provide more significant rainfall to the area. And we really need it. Right now our rain gauge is more half-empty than half-full.