With the official first day of fall less than three weeks away, you’re probably thinking about, well, pumpkin-flavored everything. But, you’re also likely thinking about beautiful fall foliage. So, if you think a leaf-peeping road trip might be in your future, you're going to need this handy map.
Tourism site SmokyMountains.com has created an annual interactive fall foliage forecast map that projects when and where the leaves will change, throughout the fall season.
Believe it or not, some small areas of the country will start to see leaves change as soon as Labor Day. For the majority of the country, though, we’re talking mid to late September before we start seeing the many colors that accompany peak leaf season.
Although forecasting this kind of thing can be tricky (a storm with some strong winds can really change things up) the people at SmokyMountains.com have a lot of data and experience at their disposal.
"Similar to any meteorological forecast, leaf predictions will never be 100% accurate," said company founder and statistical expert David Angotti. "However, after publishing our predictive fall foliage map for nearly a decade, we are quite confident in our data sources, process, and algorithm. Our experience combined with a scheduled mid-season update has us especially confident about this year’s predictions. Our goal is that this data-based, interactive tool will increase the number of people that are able to enjoy peak fall in 2021."
So, what do things look like for New England states in 2020? According to the interactive map, small areas of New Hampshire and Vermont will approach “near peak” conditions around September 20. Leaves will then start to change colors all across the northern U.S. by September 27, with peak leaf season hitting parts of New Hampshire and Vermont. Areas all across the Northeast will enter the peak color change season on October 4. Finally, by October 11, the remaining areas should be in or around their peak.
Get ready, people. Those fall foliage selfies aren’t gonna take themselves.