THE SUN SETS over Six Mile Lake in northern Dickinson County. Today’s sunset will be the last of 2017 to come after 7 p.m. Central time in the Iron Mountain area; by month’s end, the sun will drop below the horizon only a few minutes past 6:30 p.m. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

A cool and wet summer giving way to a drier and warmer September may have set the Upper Peninsula up for a glorious fall foliage display to come, a National Weather Service expert said.

Those colors already have begun coming in, especially in maples in the region, but a week of highs hovering above or below 80 likely slowed down the turning leaves, meaning the fall colors could linger longer into the season, said Robin Turner, the meteorologist in charge at the NWS Marquette office.

Trees that are stressed by drought or heat will shut down and drop leaves sooner, sometimes before any real color appears, he explained.

But this summer provided plenty of rain — 14.69 inches, 44 percent above normal — and few scorching days to endure, Turner said. Iron Mountain’s average temperature in August was 63.8 degrees, 2.6 degrees below normal for the month.

The touch of frosty conditions through much of the U.P. in late August provided a little nudge to get the trees going, Turner said. Bright, sunny days, cool nights and little wind are the ideal for bringing out the best colors.

“Which is pretty much what we had,” Turner pointed out.

Peak fall colors in the region usually come in the last week of September and the first two week of October. The Fall Color Tour report for Friday at www.uptravel.com listed most counties at only up to 10 to 15 percent color change, though Houghton and Keweenaw counties were at 5 to 30 percent.

Dickinson County was one of the farthest along at 10 to 25 percent but its peak still is not predicted to come until the first week of October.