Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
Weather Wind to 37 mph Saturday. Color may come down before it turns.
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 Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Lewis and Clark County holds most of the forest and is nearly peak today. Meagher County, to the south, is 6 days ahead. Powell County, to the west, is 4 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 4,096 to 7,292 feet. That’s 23 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 14, the low ground holds until about Oct 2, 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 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1410%
6,000–7,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 1928%
5,000–6,000 ftPeak colorpeak Sep 2630%
4,000–5,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 228%
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.
That’s 2 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
Also named across Montana, outside what the canopy read measures here: Western Larch, Black Cottonwood, Paper Birch.
Montana's fall is a two-act show: aspens and cottonwoods turn gold around 28 Sep, then western larches steal the finale in mid-October, turning entire mountain slopes amber before dropping their needles.
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
