The website www.SmokyMountains.com employs an "in-house data scientist" who analyzes hundreds of factors to plot a map of foliage conditions nationwide (click map below). He predicts the weekly status of each state and county on a seven-tier scale, including whether an area's colors will be "patchy," "partial," "near peak," "peak," or "past peak."
According to the website, only patchy areas in our region have started to turn from summer greens. As of this weekend, peak leaf-watching can only be found in the Rocky Mountains, the upper Midwest across the Great Lakes, and across the New England states. Peak conditions are approaching rapidly in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and Virginia.
By the weekend of October 25th, foliage colors in our area will be upgraded to "partial," but peak viewing conditions should be the case across the Smokies.
The first weekend of November moves us into near-peak foliage in southern Illinois, southeast Missouri and the western half of Kentucky and Tennessee. Peak leaf color will be brightest in central Illinois above I-70, and the eastern third of Kentucky and Tennessee as well as all of the Smoky Mountains.
By the weekend of November 8th, all of western Kentucky should be ablaze with peak fall colors, as well as much of the South. Leafwatching season will be over by then in the Smokies, and all areas north of us.
The color show will be all but over by mid November for most of the country except for the Gulf Coast.
On the Net:
Fall Foliage Map
