We had a heat wave here in Seattle that lasted almost two weeks, from the end of June through the first 10 days of July. In a normal summer, the grass on the median strip along 17th Ave. NE would just be starting to go dry, and you wouldn’t see an accumulation of dead chestnut leaves like this until mid-October. I’ve seen lots of immature chestnut pods fallen to the ground, too.

I am by no means a big fan of summer; give me autumn and early winter, then talk to me again in the spring. But one of the things I have always loved about summer west of the Cascades is the intense, profound greenness of it. These chestnut trees in July and August are usually so heavy with foliage and cast such a deep, cooling shade shade that even on the hottest days I can walk underneath them and feel reassured that cooler days won’t be long in coming. But this year? Not so much.