We haven’t had much rain to speak of since the beginning of August except for a few days following Katrina several weeks ago. Many of the leaves in the lower elevations are already falling without much of an autumn display of color. I'm not overly optimistic but it's too early to tell. Last year the yellows arrived on time in the third week of October but the reds of the maples, sourwoods and black gums didn't appear until two weeks later. We may have that kind of year again but in the Smokys, autumn is always beautiful somewhere. Some years you just have to look for it.