National Forest·Maine, New Hampshire·767,592 acres
White Mountain National Forest
Forecast issued 25 Sep, 5:21pm ET
Peak color4 OctAim for 3 to 6 Oct
In the forest today, Sep 25Starting to turn
Higher ground turns first, so the slopes above the road lead the valley by a few days.
3 reports came in from Grafton County this week, 2 of them patchy color and 1 of them just starting. Our date held. See the county on the map.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around White Mountain National Forest Grafton County holds most of the forest and is starting to turn today. Coos County, to the north, is 5 days ahead. Carroll County, to the southeast, is 2 days behind.By elevation The forest runs from about 666 to 3,416 feet. That’s 9 days of season between the top and the bottom: the high stands peak around Sep 30, the low ground holds until about Oct 9, and the color comes downhill in between. The date at the top of this page is the 2,000 to 3,000 foot band.
3,000–4,000 ftNearly peakpeak Sep 3010%
2,000–3,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 428%
1,000–2,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 645%
0–1,000 ftStarting to turnpeak Oct 917%
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.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Bartlett Experimental Forest camera, 13 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 1 day earlier than our model alone would say. This September has been running cool, which shifts peak color.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Saturday 3 October to Sunday 4 October
You’ll find it just past peak up high, nearly peak lower down.
Up at 3,000 feet the stands peak around Sep 30; down at 1,000 feet they hold on until about Oct 9. Pick your elevation for the day you come.
3,000–4,000 ftJust past peakpeak Sep 30
2,000–3,000 ftPeak colorpeak Oct 4
1,000–2,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 6
0–1,000 ftNearly peakpeak Oct 9
Where to drive
Kancamagus Highway, about 9 miles · Route 112 (Lost River Road), about 21 miles · Route 100, about 71 miles
What turns
sugar maple, red maple, paper birch, yellow birch, American beech
What turns, and when
sugar maple30%
red maple20%
paper birch20%
yellow birch10%
American beech10%
quaking aspen10%
Also named across New Hampshire, outside what the canopy read measures here: White Birch.
New Hampshire's White Mountains produce the most dramatic fall color in the Northeast, with sugar maples blazing orange and scarlet against the granite peaks and dark green of spruce.
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 27 long-running forest cameras: two dates in three land within 10 days of the camera’s own peak. How this map is made
