Am I in denial about how late in the summer it really is, or are the leaves changing color too early?

Is it the lack of rain/climate change, or am I imagining things? I know one Japanese maple behind my house that I have a photo of from last year and it looks like it is a little ahead of where it was this time last year in terms of leaves changing. But elsewhere, it seems like leaves are changing a little earlier than normal.

Either that, or I am in absolute denial about how much summer is actually left.