Roadsides and wetland edges turn first, and the woods behind them run a few days later.
No new reports from the ground here this week.
That’s 6 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Plan this tripIf you can only come on certain days
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Sunday 1 November to Monday 2 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
- Where to drive
- Route 19 through Ozark National Scenic Riverways, about 138 miles
- What turns
- white oak, red maple, northern red oak, shagbark hickory, blackgum
What turns, and when
- white oak31%
- red maple19%
- northern red oak18%
- shagbark hickory10%
- blackgum5%
- sweetgum5%
Also named across Illinois, outside what the canopy read measures here: Sugar Maple.
The Shawnee Hills of southern Illinois produce surprisingly intense color, with sugar maples blazing orange above sandstone bluffs and oaks turning deep burgundy across the ridges.
Across Illinois as a whole: Early-to-mid October in the north, late October in the Shawnee.
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. We score it here against 7 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 13 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made