This Interactive Map Predicts Peak Fall Foliage in Your Area for 2026

I grew up in southern California, where the weather is fairly consistent, so when I moved to New York I basically stepped into a new world with four distinct seasons. Now I can easily travel an hour or two out of the city and go on a hike where I’m surrounded by lush trees in beautiful colors in the fall. 

But when the leaves change colors, they do it fast — so it helps to keep tabs on when your area’s trees will be looking their most autumnal. Thankfully, this online fall foliage map makes it easy to plan your leaf-peeping adventures.

The website Explore Fall’s annual Fall Foliage Map is simple. It’s a two-dimensional map of the United States that runs from September 1 to December 31, 2026. You can zoom in and out of it to see where your hyper-local area will peak with fall foliage. The map gets its data from Explore Fall’s “in-house fall foliage model,” which claims to be “accurate within three days 80% of the time.”

The map is color-coded, ranging from “little to no color” to “past peak color.” You can toggle the dates to see the time-lapse of predicted peak fall foliage. You can also view a more detailed state map, and search for specific cities or landmarks to immediately see its estimated peak fall foliage date. (I tested it and learned that in Salem, Massachusetts, it’s the appropriately spooky date of October 30 — just a day before Halloween.)

Sorry to any eager autumn fans, but it’s barely mid-September, and the trees are still quite green nationwide. Some parts of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado have “low color,” but that’s about it … for now. 

Here’s what you can expect from late September to mid-November.

Once it hits September 15, changes get more prominent. The states with small amounts of low color in early September now have far more of it. As the month progresses, states like Washington, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine start seeing substantial low color foliage shifts as well. 

By the end of the month, much of the Northwest, Midwest, and Northeast (plus some of the Southwest) has either low, medium, or high color, with the greatest color change occurring in the early fall bloomer states (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado).

From October 1 to 15, the majority of the country develops fall foliage of some degree, with large swaths of moderate, high, and peak colors. States like Washington experience it all in just these 15 days. 

By October 9, some parts of those “early fall bloomer” states (Montana and Idaho, for instance) are even past peak color already, and by October 15 that extends to even more states. Time flies when you’re having fall. 

Moving the map slider from October 15 to the end of the month shows the country getting progressively swallowed up by autumnal colors, save for small parts of southern California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. 

Although more areas are past their peak, much of the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast is still at low, moderate, and peak color.

During the first week of November, most of the United States is past peak fall foliage time. 

Still, plenty of areas in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Birmingham, Alabama; Dallas, Texas; and St. Louis, Missouri have low, medium, and peak colors during this time, as well as sections of California and western Oregon.

By November 15, the vast majority of the continental United States is no longer experiencing peak fall foliage. 

However, if you’re in the small southern slice of the United States roughly spanning North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, southern New Mexico, and northern California, you’ll still have until the end of the month to see some colorful leaves.