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.
Still greenStartingNearly peakPeakPast peakNo fall canopy we forecastInside the line, each band of elevation is painted on its own date.
Around Chickasaw National Recreation Area Nearly all of the recreation area is in Murray County, which is still green today.By elevation The recreation area runs from about 868 to 1,043 feet. It turns together: there isn’t enough relief here for the color to come down in stages.
1,000–2,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 814%
0–1,000 ftStill greenpeak Nov 986%
SepOctNov
Height off 3DEP inside the recreation area’s own boundary; each band carries the date our model gives that elevation, corrections and all. The percentage is how much of the recreation area stands in it.
See it now PhenoCam Network, Blue River camera, 35 km away, captured Sep 25.
That’s 6 days later than our model alone would say. This September has been running warm, which shifts peak color.
The place
Springs, streams, lakes - whatever its form, water is the attraction at Chickasaw National Recreation Area.
Set the days you can be here. Everything under them answers for those days, not for peak.
Sunday 8 November to Monday 9 November
You’ll find it peak color.
That's the day our forecast puts peak color here.
1,000–2,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 8
0–1,000 ftPeak colorpeak Nov 9
Where to drive
Talimena National Scenic Byway, about 135 miles
What turns
white oak, black oak, shagbark hickory, sugar maple, plains cottonwood
What turns, and when
white oak34%
black oak23%
shagbark hickory11%
sugar maple11%
plains cottonwood8%
green ash5%
Also named across Oklahoma, outside what the canopy read measures here: Post Oak, Blackjack Oak, Sweetgum, Red Maple.
The Ouachita Mountains in the southeast produce the best color, with sweetgums going red and purple, oaks turning russet, and the ridgetop views from the Talimena Byway stretching for miles.
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
