With foliage season unusually late into October, leaf peepers are still finding colorful displays in many parts of the state this weekend.

"I believe with the warmer weather we had, plus the dryness -- my observation is the season is drawn out about a week more than usual," said Jon Nute, the Hillsborough County Extension forester.

State tourism officials expect at least to meet their prediction of more than 7.8 million foliage-season tourism visits, which would represent a 1 percent increase over last fall's record numbers. Tourist spending for the months of September, October and November were predicted to hit nearly $1.1 billion.

"Absolutely beautiful," said Alice DeSouza, director of the state Department of Travel and Tourism. "We're just saying you can never predict Mother Nature."

But other leaf observers around Northern New England say the colors are duller than normal.

"It's nothing like it used to be," said University of Vermont plant biologist Tom Vogelmann, a Vermont native who's among those who believes warming weather may be to blame for lackluster foliage.

He says autumn has become too warm to elicit New England's richest colors.

Noted Hillsborough County's Nute, "As far as years ago, I think there are (now) more yellows than reds."

A warming climate affects trees in several ways.

Colors emerge on leaves in the fall, when the green chlorophyll that has dominated all spring and summer breaks down.

The process begins when shorter days signal leaves to form an abscission layer at their base, cutting off the flow of water and nutrients. But in order to hasten the decline of chlorophyll, cold nights are needed.

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In addition, warmer winters have been friendly to fungi that attack some trees, particularly the red and sugar maples that historically have provided the most dazzling colors.

Tar spot fungus, which creates little black dots on maple leaves, and anthracnose, which renders them crumbly and brown, have flourished as autumns have gotten warmer.

"The leaves fall off without ever becoming orange or yellow or red. They just go from green to brown," said Barry Rock, a forestry professor at the University of New Hampshire.

He said 2004 was "mediocre, 2005 was terrible, 2006 was pretty bad, although it was spotty. This year, we're seeing that same spottiness."

But people depending on tourism dollars are bragging about this month's fall colors.

"It's been superstar foliage up here, and it's ongoing," said Irene Donnell, public relations director at the Mt. Washington Resort in Bretton Woods.

Jayne O'Connor, president of White Mountains Attractions Association in North Woodstock, said the eastern side of Mount Washington is offering "brilliant" color this weekend. "You can never predict it," she said. "This year, it went much longer than what we normally have up here."

Canadian visitors continue to take advantage of a favorable exchange rate. Their numbers this fall are up 20 percent over last year, which was 20 percent over 2005, O'Connor said.

She said the season started slowly but took a dramatic turn for the better just as Columbus Day weekend was beginning. "It seemed to start later," she said. "Things got really dull -- 'Gosh, it's not coming in the way it normally comes,' -- and overnight it popped."

Her association includes attractions, restaurants and lodgings. "By and large, I would say 90 percent had an up year," she said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.