Beech tree losing its leaves already

We live in Maplewood and our beech tree has is lost almost all of its eaves already. Seems way too early. Is anyone else experiencing this? Maybe it's from a lack on rain?

Don't have any beech trees of my own, but our birch used to drop leaves during prolonged hot spells.

(can't tell you what its current condition is, since it split and died in the big ice storm back in the 90s)

The heat wave is really stressing out trees.

we've basically had no rain for a month

Trees need to be watered, too. Long and slow.

What kind of beech (American, copper)? How old?

Not sure what type of beech tree. Here is a picture. I think it's probably very old given the size.

Our copper beech doesn't seem to be having any trouble so far. I'm not certain how old it is but if I had to guess I would say about 60y.

Our huge tulip poplars start losing their leaves in August (though I guess with the lack of rain it's been a couple of weeks already this year). I hate these trees. We are dealing with leaves for MONTHS. One of the reasons we finally got a lawn service this year was so we wouldn't have to rake and dispose of leaves ourselves for 5 months out of the year. On the plus side, our trees were already almost bare when Sandy hit so there wasn't as much wind resistance??

I guess I'm just commiserating.

Came across this in a discussion of beech trees/forests in Michigan this summer (someone was discussing all the the beech trees that had dropped leaves and was concerned about a disease specific to beeches):

Thankfully, the State Park naturalist went out and found no evidence of the insect or its scale on the bark, and is of the opinion that it's the lack of moisture that is causing these leaves to drop. Under water stress, beech are one of the first trees to lose leaves.

Contact a Certified Tree Expert. If the tree is just stressed, possibly a biostimulant treatment may help improve its vigor.