Dazzling display: Colorful foliage ushers in autumn in northern Utah

OGDEN VALLEY, Utah (WPVI) -- It is starting to look like fall out west, and the brilliant autumnal display was caught on camera.

Justin McFarland recorded this incredible video, showing the colors bursting at Snowbasin ski resort in northern Utah's Ogden Valley.

The foliage is vivid, with bright red, green and purple colors, bringing remarkable beauty to the landscape.

Back here at home, state environmental officials say Pennsylvania has a longer and more varied fall foliage season than any other state in the nation.

According to AccuWeather, during the spring and summer months, chlorophyll is constantly replaced in the leaves, facilitating growth and giving the leaves their green color. Come fall, when the nights start to get longer, the cells where the leaf and stem meet divide rapidly but do not expand, causing the formation of the abscission layer, which blocks the transportation of materials to and from the leaves. The blocked chlorophyll disappears completely from the leaves, allowing for the yellow (xanthophylls) and orange (carotenoids) pigments to be visible. The red and purple pigments (anthocyanins) are the result of sugars that are trapped in the leaf. In addition, temperature, sunlight and soil moisture all play a role in how the appearance of leaves in the fall.

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