Department of Forestry explains why leaves change colors

AFTON, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- If you've ever wondered why the leaves are the colors they are, the Virginia Department of Forestry has your answers.

"Fall foliage happens every year in response to two things. One of those is the shortening day length, and the other is temperature changes. All the growing season, the trees have several pigments in them. As the days start to shorten, the days and nights get cooler, the chlorophyll projection stops so we start to see a lot of yellow and orange and then as the trees start to close off the cells that attach the leaf to the tree, sometimes sugars will get trapped in the leaves and that will form the red piments that we see a little later on in the fall" said Ellen Powell with the Virginia Department of Forestry.