Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Modoc National Forest Modoc County holds most of the forest and is still green today. That’s the county as a whole, which peaks 8 days later than the forest’s own stands: the forest is starting to turn. Lassen County, to the south, is 3 days ahead. Siskiyou County, to the west, is 6 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 4,193 to 7,007 feet. That’s 20 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 27, the low ground holds until about Oct 17, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 5,000 to 6,000 foot band.
7,000–8,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 275%
6,000–7,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 512%
5,000–6,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 1236%
4,000–5,000 ftStill greenpeak Oct 1748%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the forest’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the forest stands in it.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Friday 9 October to Saturday 10 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 6,000 feet the stands peak around Oct 5; down at 5,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 17. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Oct 5
5,000–6,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 12
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 17
What turns
black cottonwood, bigleaf maple, red alder, willow, quaking aspen
What turns, and when
black cottonwood23%
bigleaf maple22%
red alder17%
willow12%
quaking aspen11%
vine maple10%
Also named across California, outside what the canopy read measures here: Black Oak, Fremont Cottonwood, White Alder.
Eastern Sierra aspens turn brilliant gold against granite walls, black oaks in Yosemite Valley go bronze and russet, and cottonwoods line the desert creeks in pale yellow.
This forecast is built from the species that stand here, their elevation and this September’s weather, and corrected in season by cameras, foresters and our own crew. Out here we score it against NASA's satellite record of when the canopy shuts down, read inside each unit’s own boundary: two dates in three land within 12 days of it. How this map is made
