Photo= Maple leaves have begun to slightly change color (October 27, Jissoin Temple, Iwakura, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto)

Tree leaves have begun to blaze with color as autumn advances in the mountain areas of Kyoto City. On October 27, when the first cold blast blew in the Kinki area, the maple leaves around the pond of Jissoin Temple in Iwakura, Sakyo Ward, turned red and yellow, raising expectations of tourists for the coming season of colorful foliage.

According to the Kyoto Local Meteorological Office, as the minimum temperature at dawn decreases to plus/minus eight degrees Celsius, and as the temperature gap between day and night becomes greater, a pigment called anthocyanin increases to change the leaves' color. This month's lowest temperature in the city was 9.3 degree on October 18. The Meteorological Office forecasts that the minimum temperature will remain higher than in an average year until December.

In Kyoto Botanical Gardens, however, the leaves of flowering dogwoods and zelkovas have become reddish earlier than usual, showing the difficulty in calculating the best time to view autumn leaves. Junichi Nagasawa, director of the gardens, said, "Autumn will last long this year, so we can enjoy fall leaves from mid-November to early-December."

The first cold blast in the Kinki area blew eight days earlier than last year. In the afternoon on October 27, the atmospheric pressure pattern was typical of winter, being high in the west, and low in the east, while maximum wind velocities of 13.8 meters and 16.2 were observed in Kyoto City and Maizuru City respectively.