Weather expert predicts a rainy weekend before colder post-autumn temperatures hit Aylesbury

Autumn is currently in full flow with beautiful coloured leaves everywhere you look.

However, we are now getting to that time when the leaves are falling fast and it won't be long before the trees are bare.

The magic of autumn is prolonged by the fact that different tree species drop their leaves at different times.

For example, species such as horse chestnut and beech are amongst the first to start losing their leaves.

Followed by maple, silver birch and willow, whereas ash and oak tend to be the species that lose their leaves last with some oaks clinging onto their leaves into December.

Factors that affect how fast the leaves fall include temperature and wind.

If it is particularly cold in early autumn then it can cause the leaves to turn colour and therefore fall quicker.

Then big storms that bring strong winds can bring the leaves down quicker than if they are just left to drop naturally.

In years when it is mild and less stormy, the leaves take longer to turn colour and fall.

This years, the trees appear to be losing their leaves roughly around the time you would expect, although some of the late dropping species are a little behind where they would typically be.

The last week has been very typically cloudy, damp and mild with temperatures around 12-13C in the day and falling to around 8-10C at night.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week and into the weekend, it will be mainly dry with some sunshine but a fair amount of cloud at times with just a little drizzle.

More prolonged rain will move through over the weekend before winds turn more northerly bringing mainly dry but much colder conditions.