19 Surprising Facts About Fall That Sound Made Up – But Are Actually True

Fall is here and you can feel it. Or at least I can. Besides the lower temperatures and shorter days, the air starts to smell like autumn. Even the roses in my garden are different. The flowers are smaller now – they don’t seem to have the same strength they had during summer, but they’re still beautiful.

And of course I can see that fall – my favorite season – is here in all the fruits and vegetables, and in the grape juice we make from freshly crushed grapes. In Romanian we call it must; the English term is grape must – the fresh juice before it ferments and becomes wine. School has started, too, and we’re beginning to plan autumn holidays and trips.

But if you go back through history or look at traditions and customs, you can discover so many interesting things connected with fall. I shared a few with a friend the other day, and she had no idea about them either. I realized it would be a great topic for an article here.

Then I started putting the facts together and kept finding more. So here they are: 19 surprising facts about fall that sound made up – but are actually true.

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1. In One Study, Men Rated Women’s Bodies More Attractive in Autumn Than in Summer

Researchers asked 114 heterosexual men in Poland to rate the same images of female body shapes, breasts and faces at different times of the year. Ratings for body shape and breasts were lowest in summer, rose in autumn and reached their highest levels in winter, while ratings of faces didn’t show the same seasonal pattern.

The researchers suggested a possible contrast effect: when warmer weather means people see more uncovered bodies in everyday life, the threshold for judging physical attractiveness may change. It was one study involving a relatively small group of men, so the result isn’t a universal rule about attraction.

2. A Historical Study Found Fall-Born People More Likely to Reach 100

Apparently, I have good news for you if you were born in autumn. A study of 1,574 American centenarians born between 1880 and 1895 found an unusually high number of people born in September, October, and November. Researchers compared them with more than 10,000 shorter-lived siblings as well as spouses and population records, and people born in the fall months had significantly higher odds of reaching 100 than those born in March.

The season-of-birth study looked at people born more than a century ago, when nutrition, infections and childhood conditions were very different, so it can’t be used to predict the lifespan of babies born today.

3. Part of a Chickadee’s Brain Can Grow by About 30% in Fall

Black-capped chickadees spend autumn hiding food in hundreds of different places, and the part of the brain involved in spatial memory changes along with the season.

Their hippocampus can increase in volume by about 30%, with new nerve cells added when remembering all those caches becomes essential for surviving winter. The seasonal brain change occurs in a bird weighing only around 12 grams and later reverses as conditions change again. Birds already provide plenty of surprising material for animal trivia, but this is one of the strangest examples I’ve found.

4. Cold Weather Can Make Romance Movies More Appealing

Four experiments found that people who felt physically cold showed a stronger preference for romance movies – as long as they already associated romantic films with feelings of psychological warmth.

Researchers also compared online movie rentals with historical temperatures and found that romance movies became more popular as outdoor temperatures dropped. Physical cold even influenced how much participants said they were willing to pay to watch a romantic movie.

5. Squirrels Sometimes Pretend to Bury Food

Eastern gray squirrels don’t always put a nut into the hole they carefully dig and cover. Researchers observing free-living squirrels found them creating empty caches, especially when other squirrels were nearby.

These fake burials accounted for roughly 13% of the caching events observed in the study and appear to help protect real food stores from thieves. The squirrels were more likely to use this deceptive behavior when other squirrels were close enough to watch.

6. Fall Monarch Butterflies Can Live Up to Eight Times Longer Than Summer Generations

Most monarch generations born during spring and summer live for only a few weeks. The generation appearing in late summer and early fall is different: these butterflies delay reproduction, can survive for up to eight months and may travel more than 3,000 miles from Canada and the United States to overwintering grounds in Mexico.

Known as the “super generation”, they make a journey none of the individual butterflies has ever made before. The northward trip the following year is completed over several generations.

7. The Fall Equinox Can Briefly Interfere With Satellite Reception

Around the spring and fall equinoxes, the Sun can line up almost directly behind a geostationary satellite from the perspective of a receiving antenna on Earth.

Radio noise coming from the Sun can temporarily overwhelm the satellite signal, resulting in degraded reception or a short loss of signal. These sun outages usually last only a few minutes at a time but can recur over several days as the Sun moves through the same area of the sky.

8. “Fall” Wasn’t Invented in America – And the Season Used to Be Called “Harvest”

The seasonal use of fall developed in England around the 1500s, connected with expressions such as “fall of the leaf” and “fall of the year.” Before that, English speakers commonly called this part of the year harvest, a name that remained in widespread use for centuries.

The history of the seasonal words shows that British and American usage separated much later: autumn eventually became dominant in Britain, while North America kept fall. So the word many people now regard as distinctly American actually came across the Atlantic from Britain, something worth remembering when experiencing autumn in England.

9. Apples Float Because About a Quarter of Their Volume Can Be Air

An apple feels solid, but tiny spaces between its cells can make up around 25% of its volume. That trapped air lowers the fruit’s overall density enough for an apple to float in water, which is why bobbing for apples works.

The same air inside apples also creates problems when making and canning applesauce because trapped oxygen can contribute to discoloration and other changes.

10. Trees Really Can Make New Red Pigment in Fall

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The yellow and orange pigments visible in many autumn leaves were already present during summer but hidden by green chlorophyll. Many red leaves work differently: trees actively produce anthocyanins as the leaves age, meaning at least some of the spectacular red color really is created in fall.

Sunlight, sugars and temperature all influence the result, and the amount of red can vary dramatically between trees, between different parts of the same tree and even within a single leaf. Research into the color-changing process explains why the fall colors we see can look different from one year to another.

11. Pumpkins Are Botanically Berries

In the kitchen, nobody is likely to put a pumpkin next to blueberries and call them members of the same category. Botanically, though, pumpkins are fruits and, more specifically, a specialized type of berry known as a pepo.

Pepos have a firm outer rind surrounding fleshy tissue and seeds, and the category also includes other squashes, cucumbers and watermelons. Under the botanical definition, the enormous orange pumpkin carved for Halloween really is a very large berry.

12. Some Conifers Turn Yellow and Drop All Their Needles in Fall

Conifers aren’t always evergreen. Tamaracks, also called American larches, have needles and cones but behave like deciduous trees: their green needles turn brilliant yellow in autumn and then fall, leaving the branches bare until spring.

Other larch species do the same thing. A deciduous conifer can look as though something has gone badly wrong if you’re used to yellow needles being a sign of a dying evergreen, but the yearly color change and needle loss are completely normal.

13. Oktoberfest Is Mostly a September Festival

The first Oktoberfest took place in October, beginning with celebrations for the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in 1810. In 1872, however, organizers moved the festival into September to take advantage of milder, sunnier weather and longer days.

It has started in September ever since and now finishes in early October. Anyone planning a trip to Munich specifically for Oktoberfest definitely shouldn’t use the festival’s name to choose the dates.

14. The Fall Equinox Usually Doesn’t Have Exactly 12 Hours of Day and 12 Hours of Night

Equinox comes from Latin words meaning “equal night,” but most places don’t actually receive exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness on the September equinox.

Earth’s atmosphere bends sunlight, making the Sun appear above the horizon when it is physically just below it, while sunrise and sunset are measured using the edge of the Sun rather than its center. As a result, many locations get slightly more than 12 hours of daylight on the equinox. At 60 degrees latitude, for example, daylight can last about 12 hours and 16 minutes.

15. Fall Really Can Be a Better Time to See the Northern Lights

The longer nights of fall obviously help aurora watchers, but darkness isn’t the only reason the season can be favorable. Geomagnetic activity shows a seasonal pattern, with stronger disturbances occurring more often around the spring and autumn equinoxes because of the changing geometry between Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind.

That gives the weeks around the equinox an aurora advantage, although solar activity, latitude, cloud cover and darkness still determine what you’ll actually see. It’s useful timing to know if you’re hoping to see the Northern Lights in Iceland.

16. The Harvest Moon Isn’t Always in September

The Harvest Moon isn’t simply another name for September’s full moon. It’s the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, so in some years it occurs in October.

Around this time, the difference between one evening’s moonrise and the next can also become much smaller than usual at northern latitudes. Instead of rising roughly 50 minutes later each night on average, the Moon can rise only around 20 to 30 minutes later for several nights, giving a sequence of relatively early Harvest Moon rises that historically provided farmers with extra evening light.

17. Seeing More Spiders in Fall Doesn’t Necessarily Mean There Are More Spiders

Spiders seem to appear everywhere once autumn arrives, but much of that increase comes from visibility rather than a sudden population explosion. Fall is mating season for many species, and male spiders start wandering much farther as they search for females.

Seasonal jobs such as moving firewood can expose spiders that were already nearby, while colder weather can push others toward sheltered spaces. Entomologists examining the annual autumn increase found that roughly nine out of ten spiders brought to one specialist’s office at that time of year were males – just as real spiders begin competing with all the decorative ones appearing for Halloween.

18. Japan Has a National Holiday for the Autumn Equinox

Japan’s Autumnal Equinox Day, or Shūbun no Hi, is an official national holiday associated with honoring ancestors and remembering people who have died.

The date follows the astronomical equinox rather than staying permanently fixed to the same day each year; in 2026 it falls on September 23. The national holiday is part of a broader period known as Higan, when many families visit graves and remember relatives who have died.

19. A Serpent of Light Appears on Chichén Itzá Around the Equinox

Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, the setting Sun creates a sequence of triangular patches of light and shadow along the northern staircase of El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

Together with the carved serpent head at the bottom of the staircase, the pattern produces the appearance of a snake descending the pyramid. The serpent of light is associated with Kukulkán, the feathered-serpent deity, and people still gather at the ancient Maya city to watch the effect appear around the equinoxes.

Conclusion

I started looking into these facts because of a conversation with a friend and ended up going from human attraction and longevity to birds’ brains, deceptive squirrels, satellites, language, astronomy and traditions on different continents. Fall will still be the season of cooler air, fruits and vegetables, fresh grape must, smaller roses in my garden and colorful leaves for me, but I like knowing how many unexpected stories are hiding behind things we see every year.

And before winter takes over completely, there are still plenty of things to do in November, from late-autumn outings to quieter indoor activities.

Questions People Ask About Fall

What are some surprising facts about fall?

Some surprising facts about fall include seasonal changes in human attraction, a historical link between autumn birthdays and exceptional longevity, chickadees increasing the size of a brain region involved in memory, squirrels creating fake food caches, monarch butterflies living much longer during the fall migration and satellite reception being disrupted around the equinox.

What are some weird facts about autumn?

Pumpkins are botanically berries, some conifers turn yellow and lose every needle in autumn, cold temperatures can increase interest in romance movies, Oktoberfest takes place mainly in September, and Japan has a national holiday for the autumn equinox.

Why do leaves change color in fall?

As chlorophyll breaks down, yellow and orange pigments that were already inside many leaves become visible. Some red and purple colors work differently because trees produce new anthocyanin pigments during autumn, with sunlight, temperature and sugars influencing the final color.

Does the fall equinox have exactly 12 hours of daylight?

Usually not. Atmospheric refraction and the way sunrise and sunset are measured give most places slightly more than 12 hours of daylight on the equinox itself.

Why do Americans call autumn fall?

The seasonal use of fall developed in Britain from expressions connected with falling leaves. The word traveled to North America with English settlers and remained common there even after British English increasingly favored autumn.

Why are there more spiders in fall?

Many spiders become easier to notice in autumn because adult males are moving around looking for mates. Seasonal chores and colder weather can expose or displace spiders that were already living nearby, so the apparent increase doesn’t necessarily mean the local spider population suddenly grew.

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Violeta-Loredana Pascal is a communications expert, business mentor, and the founder of Earth’s Attractions and PRwave INTERNATIONAL. A pioneer in the Romanian digital PR landscape since 2005, she holds a degree in Communication and Social Sciences from SNSPA Bucharest. Violeta is a senior trainer at AcademiadeAfaceri.ro, where she leverages over 20 years of experience to teach professional courses in PR strategy and workplace productivity. By blending high-level business consulting with a passion for holistic travel and wellness, she empowers solopreneurs to overcome procrastination, build profitable brands, and design a life of purposeful adventure.