Fall Foliage Peak Season: When to See the Leaves

With the heat not far behind us - Boston and Providence, in fact, set heat records Friday - it seems silly to look ahead to fall foliage.

But the intense drought that New England has been mired in for months could shorten and dull our famed foliage season, according to The Weather Channel.

"Drought conditions can slow down the process of color change," Weather.com meteorologist Tom Moore told the website. "It can also lead to less brilliant displays of color."

So some optimized planning may be in order to make sure you can catch the leaves at their glorious best. Enter: SmokyMountains.com's Fall Foliage Map.

According to the website, "the 2016 Fall Foliage Map is the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves." It notes when leaves are expected to what color on a week-to-week basis.

For instance, this week leaves are just starting to turn in Northern New England, not quite in Massachusetts and Rhode Island just yet. But by this time next month, most of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont will already be "past peak" season, while most of Massachusetts will be just about to enter peak season.

The changing of the leaves tends to happen in New England from the northwest on down, so Vermont, Maine, Northern New Hampshire, and the Berkshires change before most of Massachusetts, which changes before Connecticut and Rhode Island. For what the foliage is expected to be like in your area on any given week, check out the 2016 Fall Foliage Map.

If you are looking for a good time to see the leaves in Southern New England, may we suggest the week of Sept. 23, when the Fall Foliage Map predicts our favorite foliage cycle - "patchy."

Photo by Jennifer Boyer via Flickr